We are in Hell
by Irrisy
Summary: Demons escaping from hell? Yako in trouble. Will Neuro realize how much he needs her? *COMPLETE*
1. Chapter 1

A.N. Don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro or any of its characters. The two demon bad guys are mine though

Prologue

"Hey hurry up there with that coal, the last elevator goes up in 5," a man yelled to his mine working buddy. It is a tough job mining coal but it can at least put food on the table. "Yeah give me a second," the reply was muffled by the distance. The mine's life was slowly coming to its end as in each day they brought less and less coal up to the surface. The worker slowly started moving towards the other, relieved that the hard day was over. The man heard a loud snap, a very ominous sound in the mining business. Glancing back he stared in horror as he saw one support beams start to break. "Run!" he yelled in panic, the other man looked to him in confusion and saw that the tunnel was collapsing, eyes wide with terror he too began to run. It was futile though and the earth came down upon them, the last thing they saw though was bloody red glow that came from where the broken pillar once stood.

Yako was currently running away from crazed fans. _Why _pant _won't_ pant_they give up already!_ Ever since she became famous all she seemed to being doing these days was running. She noticed she was nearing the detective agency and increased her speed. _Almost there…will ….be….safe_. If Yako actually took time to think about it the agency would be the last place she would be safe in and would have to deal with her egotistical boss. However as we know she wasn't thinking about the physical torture that she would be subject to once she stepped a foot into that office. pant pant _Too many damn stairs._ Door in sight she wretched open the door and then quickly slammed it.

Sighing, she leaned on the door and slowly slid down to the floor. Her contact with the floor was brief however and was soon flying through the air only to come crashing down once again. _Oww…why hello floor it's so nice to meet your acquaintance again._ She and the floor became better acquaintances each and every day all to thanks to the one who was currently standing on her. "Dishrag, since you have so _kindly_," at the word kindly Yako couldn't help let out a pained moan as her boss Neuro so _kindly _dug his foot into her spine, "decided to show up early, make yourself useful and go look through the papers for a mystery, Slave." When Neuro finally got off her, Yako immediately went to do what she was told. She would rather not have a reason for her boss to torture her some more.

Highlighter in hand she began to circle possible mysteries, _hmm let's see the only good ones I have found so far are….a murder and a kidnapping…everything else won't do. _After knowing Neuro for two years already, she has gotten good at spotting possible mysteries. _Least it doesn't take me as long to go through these as it used to, _she let out a quiet sigh. With her task done she mentally prepared herself for the next part, giving them to Neuro…_fun._ Somewhat surprised she spotted him napping on the couch. _Even though two years have gone by, it is still surprising to see him sleeping._ Even though he looks like a regular human when he is like that, it's best to let sleeping demons lie.

Papers in her grasp, she quietly walked over to his desk and set them down. Not knowing how long he was going to sleep and for obvious reasons there was no way in hell she was going to wake him up, she decided to go home. Tiptoeing towards the door as to not make a sound; _ok girl, almost free…just a few more steps………oh my god……..what the hell is that thing…_Yako was staring in grim fascination at what appeared to be a flower growing on the door, a flower that had very sharp teeth and flaying tentacles that oozed purple goo. _Ok…. guess I won't go home. _Stuck in the office with nothing better to do Yako decided to make herself useful by looking for mysteries via the computer. Not seeing the smirk that spread over Neuro's face as she moved away from the door.


	2. Chapter 2

A.N. Don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro or any of its characters. The two demon bad guys are mine though

* * *

Neuro's eyes snapped open. _Hmm…a strong mystery has appeared. _He stood up, glancing towards Yako and noticed it didn't come from any of the mysteries she found. _Wood louse just found bite sized ones this time. _Smirking, he appeared behind Yako and grasped her neck with now clawed hands. A feeling of pleasure swept through him as he listened to her pained gasps. From the time he came to the surface world the passage of time has made him somewhat humanized.

At first Neuro despised these new changes, his fingers tightened around Yako's neck for a brief moment before they loosened enough so he wouldn't kill her. _Feelings…_he thought disgusted, _such a waste of mind capability; _Grabbing Yako by the head he threw her towards the couch. _Though…_he mused smirking, _they can be quite… entertaining, _a wave of amusement rolled through him as he spotted Yako gasping and rubbing her neck.

"Worm, turn on the T.V.".He watched her do it as he commanded like the good slave that she was and then focused his attention to the news. "_**Breaking news, the King mine has collapsed killing the miners trapped inside. It seems that there was an explosion on one of the lower levels that set off a chain reaction that caused all the upper levels to be destroyed. We'll come back when we have more information, in the mean time here's Frank with the weather…".**_Neuro shut off the T.V. by slamming Yako , who was trying desperately to sneak out of the office, into it. Yako winced as she gingerly stood up from the now broken TV and warily glanced towards her boss, her escape plan failed she thought sadly. "Yako, we are going to pay a visit to this mine," he grinned widely showing all his pointed teeth, "I smell a mystery." With eyes now glowing green he dragged a barely protesting Yako by her head and out the door.

* * *

Yako stared out the car window looking at the passing scenery. She sighed and recalled what happened not too long ago. Neuro had finally let her go after dragging her a few blocks. When she asked where they were going, Neuro had just replied with one of his creepy grins that still gave Yako the shivers. _Poor Godai…_she couldn't help but wince in sympathy, _hopefully his car won't be destroyed like all the other previous ones Neuro has "borrowed". _Glancing over to Godai who was hunched over the steering wheel protectively she noticed him mumbling. From what she could hear it sounded like prayers for his car.

_Well...Neuro has been good so …_an ominous ripping sound came from the back seat…_far….never mind…I take that back. _Face in palm, Yako gently patted Godai's back when he let out a pained whimper from hearing the all ripping sounds coming from the back of the car. Turning around in her seat she glanced back at Neuro who currently had his claws in one of the seat cushions. Feeling that she had to stop him from doing more any damage she bravely voiced a request. "Umm…hey Neuro…," she couldn't help but let her voice falter when his eyes narrowed in on her, a shiver went up her spine and she suddenly had a strong urge to cower but gathering her nerves she plowed onward, "could you maybe ……" She could not finish voicing her request when Neuro let out a smile that creep her out. "Could I maybe what? … Wood louse," Yako gasped in pain as his stilled clawed hand now grasped her shoulder.

_I'm so sorry Godai…I tried. _"Umm…never mind…" Neuro's smile seemed to grow wider and Yako mentally prepared for more torture but all he did was release her shoulder from his grasp and turned his attention back to the seat cushion. Yako saw him rip a big chunk of the seat and toss it out the now broken window. Facing the front again she decided to leave Neuro alone for the benefit of her own health. Though she couldn't help but notice out of the corner of her eye, Godai just looked pale and resigned.


	3. Chapter 3

A.N. Don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro or any of its characters. The two demon bad guys are mine though

* * *

Arriving at the scene, Neuro after ordering his slaves to go mingle with the humans to find out more information crossed the yellow tape preventing people from going near the mine. _Hmm… the mystery is faint now. _Walking towards the mine that was blocked by the collapsed rocks, he placed his hand on a large boulder._ There is a strong presence of miasma._ Smirking, he used what little remaining demon power he had left to blast open the entrance. _Well at least coming out here wasn't a complete waste; I plan to fully use this opportunity to recharge_.

He frowned momentarily glancing back to where the humans were gathering, spotting his slave number 1 in the center acting like true detective like he trained her to be. She was stronger and nothing fazed her anymore he noticed,_bah…enough of this human-ish thought process…it's disgusting. _An evil smile spread over his face, after a good recharging he could say good-bye to this human mentality for awhile. Taking a step into the darkness he vanished into the depths of the mine.

Curious, he went to the source of the faint mystery; anything in his path was forcibly moved. He briefly pondered on the racket he knew he was making, but he just smiled a toothy smile and thought, _I'll let the dishrag handle the humans._The smile however soon faded off his face as he came to the source of the mystery. He now knew why there was such a strong miasma in this mine, grimly knew his plans for recharging fully wouldn't happen. His eyes coldly looked over demonic portal. He was no longer the only demon on the surface.

Annoyed with this fact he closed the portal to prevent any others from coming up. From what he could feel from the left over demon signatures that surrounded the area the demons that escaped were powerful ones. Letting out a dark chuckle and with a feral glint in his eye he headed out of the mine to gather up his slaves, they would leave this place since there was no longer a need to be here, the demons were long gone. Neuro was possessive as any demon and had no plans of welcoming his fellows. _The surface is my playground and it will stay mine. I will not share. _

* * *

Yako sighed while rubbing her head, and thought this was pointless since none of these people know anything_. _She couldn't take it anymore; the crowd that was milling around her was suffocating. "Excuse me everyone, I would like you to step back so I can find my assistant to discuss my findings."_Nonexistent findings, _she thought wearily, _it looks like it just was an accident_. There was a quiet murmur that spread throughout the crowd before they backed away enough so she could get out of human cage they created.

Yako quickly walked towards the mine before she became trapped again; now that she had some breathing room again she became lost in thought. _What is the mystery? ...This isn't like the usual cases…maybe Neuro made a mistake. Speaking of Neuro…what on earth was he doing earlier? _She recalled the loud crashes, luckily enough the people thought it was just the mine collapsing further. Yako released a heavy sigh, she glanced at the sky. _If I never met Neuro I wonder what I would be doing now._ Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned and found the object of her most recent thoughts.

_Is it me or does he look angry for some reason. _Though Yako witnessed most of his moods she has rarely seen him mad at something. Before she could speak, Neuro grasped her arm in a firm grip, "Come, we are leaving," and proceeded to drag her. Yako fought being dragged and was surprised enough when Neuro actually let her go. _Ok…something is wrong here. _"Neuro, did you solve the mystery already?" Yako quickened her pace to catch up with Neuro's long strides. She watched him frown slightly and pointedly avoid her question.

_Did he actually make a mistake?, _she thought amazed. Next thing she knew she was on her back grasping trying to catch her breath back but she was given no chance as she was abruptly picked up by her throat. She stared into his demonic green eyes and couldn't help but freeze at the almost hypnotic gaze that seemed to pick her apart into something small and insignificant. "I don't make mistakes, worm." She was released and promptly fell on her behind. "Now come we are going back to the office, there is nothing to be gained here."

Yako gaze followed Neuro as he grabbed Godai, who was currently napping, and threw him towards the parked car. She quickly got up and headed towards the car, with the mood Neuro was in it was highly likely she would be left behind for his sadistic pleasure. Loud curses and screams of monster from Godai could be heard before silence reigned over the lot as the car drove away.


	4. Chapter 4

A.N. Don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro or any of its characters. The two demon bad guys are mine though

* * *

Two weeks later…

Yako quickly left her school to her office and she was feeling rather annoyed. The weather suited her mood perfectly at the moment, dark and gloomy. Ever since they got back from that mine Neuro was acting strangely. _It was fricken 25 calls today and that was more than yesterday…if he want to go solve that many cases why doesn't he say he is the detective and leave me the hell alone cause he is making it pretty obvious he doesn't need me._

For the past two weeks Neuro has been hunting for mysteries, more so than usual. To keep up the ruse that he was just her assistant he was telling this bogus lie that she watching everything via the minicomputer he was carrying. So he called her to say her famous line so everyone could hear her voice; "The culprit is…YOU!" as he solved each case. Yako's mood continued to worsen each day as she was constantly interrupted during her classes. _Why doesn't he just record my voice so he doesn't have a use for me anymore,_ she thought this sourly, _I bet he does this to annoy me and I can say he is doing an excellent job at that_.

Besides the numerous calls the other thing that was bugging her was the 'evil-eye bug', one of Neuro's tools that has been following her constantly for the two weeks that Neuro has been on his hunting spree. _Why does he have that watching me…it's not like I'm going anywhere…sigh, at least after confronting the stupid little thing it's not in my sight anymore. _No matter how used to seeing Neuro's creepy tools having an eyeball with wings following you can make one quite paranoid. Having been lost in thought on her trek to the office, she didn't see that man in front of her before it was too late.

_Oh shoot…I should have looked where I was walking…great going girl,_she hastily stood up and began to apologize to the man picking up the papers he dropped in their collision. "I'm so sorry Sir, I wasn't looking where I was going…Oh let me help you with that," Yako quickly helped the man picked up the scattered papers before they blew away. "Thanks Miss…its quite alright I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings either," the man replied sheepishly. Picking up the remaining papers, Yako finally got a good look at the man she so carelessly bumped into and was momentarily stunned. _Whoa…is he handsome or what. _She couldn't help but examine him, _6'2…lean but it looks like he a quite nice set of muscle;, he is wearing a nice tailored black suit so he must work for or run some business company; cinnamon-colored hair that looks real silky..meh he has nicer hair than me no fair; soft pretty golden eyes…that's something you don't see every day…they look so warm…and amused?...oh my god I've been staring at him for a good 5 minutes…so embarrassing._

Yako blushed heavily and handed over the papers she was still holding, the man chuckled and asked quite amused, "Do you like what you see, Miss..?" "Oh my name's Yako," she clasped her hands and made a small bow, "and I'm really sorry for earlier, Sir." The man just smiled and proceeded to straighten out his suit, "It's quite alright Miss Yako and please call me Krayl," he offered his free hand that was not holding the papers to shake. Still somewhat embarrassed a light blush graced Yako's face as she shook his hand. His grip was firm and strong she noticed, she gave a slight tug but she still wasn't released. She glanced up from their hands and saw that he was observing her. Clearing her throat nervously she asked, "Is something the matter?" Krayl just blinked in surprise before he smiled a heart-stopping smile and let go of her hand, "Oh, I'm sorry, I was just distracted by how cute you are." Yako blushed again; it wasn't everyday one was called cute by a handsome man especially when you know you aren't that attractive. The comfortable silence was broken by the sound of cell ringing loudly, Yako groaned at the familiar sound. She looked to Krayl sheepishly, "I need to take this call, and it was nice meeting you Krayl." Krayl smiled understandably, "It's quite alright and I need to get these papers to my boss." Yako waved good-bye and quickly ran towards her office; Neuro was going to kill her for being late.

* * *

Krayl watched the girl run to wherever her destination was before their accidental meeting. Dropping the façade he put up, the once warm eyes became cold and the smile slipped off his face. _So that's Katsuragi, Yako eh? Interesting…_Moving the papers to the alternate hand, he opened his fist and inside it was the now crushed ' evil-eye bug'. A cold smirk crossed his face; _I must inform my Boss that I've found our new toy._


	5. Chapter 5

AN:Don't own Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro or any of its characters. The two demon bad guys are mine though. Thanks for the reviews and tips , I appreciate it 'hugs' here is the next chapter..enjoy

* * *

_The Slave is late, _Neuro smirked lounging in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk, _what punishment should I give her today… _He swiveled the chair so it was now facing the window and gazed down upon the lower beings doing their menial tasks. _Should I lock her up in chains and dangle her upside-down; or should I have her entertain one of my demonic pets…haven't let them out of their cages in awhile. _Neuro grinned at the thought of Yako being chased and chewed upon by his pets, hearing her delightful screams as he sat back and watched.

Spotting a running figure, Neuro turned and walked away from the window and went back to sit at his desk. _Another possibility is forcing her to take care of my man-eating garden…. _Neuro could now hear the slave's heavy breathing and her loud steps and knew she was going to burst into the office any second now. _Or maybe I could lock her in this office without her precious food, _he grinned evilly. The door burst open with a bang and Yako took two steps into the office before she collapsed from exhaustion. "Neuro, I'm sorry I'm late," Yako managed to say before she began to focus on getting her breath back. The grin slipped off Neuro's face and for the moment thoughts of punishing her went to the back of his mind, a faint puzzle was hanging on Yako. _The demon tool I had following her is gone… and something else is off, _Neuro stared at Yako trying to figure out what else was different. Neuro almost let out a growl when he finally noticed a demonic signature clinging to Yako.

Yako, who was still on the ground, became puzzled as to why Neuro wasn't punishing her yet. _It's pretty sad that I am so used to being tortured that I came to expect it. I think I'm a Masochist,_ she thought wearily. Glancing up, she froze under Neuro's furious stare. _Whoa…I have been late before and I've never seen him this mad. _Hesitantly Yako stood up and slowly backed away to the door. _Maybe I'll come back a little later once he has cooled off some. _Making sure to keep her eyes on Neuro, she grasped the door handle.

She blinked once, where Neuro sat was now empty. The next thing she knew a hand picked her up by the neck like a misbehaving cat. Yako winced at the slight pain; humans were not made to be carried like this. "Neuro, I said I was sorry. I'll try very hard not to be late next time, so can you put me down now?" _Though I don't know why I should apologize, it's not like you needed me these past few weeks, _Yako was still sour about that. Five minutes ticked by and Yako was still dangling in Neuro's grip. _Ow…ow …ow….it hurts…why on earth is he so mad…it's not like I have done something unforgivable…and why hasn't he said anything since I've stepped into the office? _Yako felt greatly relieved when she was finally put down. _I'm going to have a bruise tomorrow…I just know it_. Turning around she was glad Neuro looked calm and relatively normal, though his eyes were still in their demonic state.

"Yako, tell me about your day and leave nothing out." _That's a strange request…why would Neuro care about what I did today? _"I was at school…" Neuro interrupted Yako, "I don't care about your pitiful education move on to something else." Yako frowned, _He is the one who wanted to know about my day…he doesn't have to be rude._ "Well, I got the call from you so I left the school. Then I stopped at a restaurant for a bite to eat. Once I was done I headed to the office," _Well I did bump into a handsome guy but I don't think Neuro would care about that so I'll leave that tidbit out, "_…I didn't do anything out of the usual today, why did you want to know about my day anyway?"

Neuro heard the question but paid no attention to it and began pacing. _Tch…so she wasn't approached by anyone…so she must of passed the demon unaware. _Neuro had the strong urge to growl again, _how dare the demon have audacity to mark my possession._He stopped his pacing and turned to Yako. "Slave, come here."

Yako had been warily watching his pacing, slightly concerned. _Why is he so angry? _When she heard the command, she glanced to his face and saw that the previous anger had disappeared. Slowly she walked up to Neuro and was surprised when he grabbed her almost gently by the shoulders. The surprise quickly turned into alarm as his demonic power washed over her. "N-n-neuro, what are you doing?!"


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap. Enjoy!

* * *

Neuro ignored, Yako who was struggling to get away, while he focused on his task. _I'll erase that mark from my presence…., _he frowned momentarily, _its taking more power than I thought it would…how annoying. _The demon signature faded under the onslaught of power, a pleased smirk crossed his face. Amused, he watched Yako scramble back to put distance between them. "Slave, you are dismissed. Go do whatever you do when you are not needed." For added effect he walked over to the door, opened it; and gestured that she should go elsewhere. Neuro was somewhat confused when Yako shot him a glare and stormed out. He gave a little shrug and closed the door. _Humans…who knows what they are thinking._

Yako was mad, no maybe furious would be better accurate to describe her feelings at the moment. Everyone on the sidewalk gave her a wide berth once they saw her angry face. _I come running all the way here and what do I get!! _She clenched her hands to stop them from trembling and broke out into a run. Yako stopped running once she was a few blocks away and saw that there was a park across the street. _I didn't know there was a park here…_ The anger Yako was feeling gradually went away and she felt numb.

Entering the park she walked till she found a bench to sit on. Sighing heavily, she looked up at the sky as if she could find some answers for the questions brewing in her mind. _It looks like it is going to rain soon…_Neuro's voice rang in her head, _"Go do whatever you do when you are not needed"…"not needed…not needed" _Yako bit her lip and thought rather humorlessly, _I guess I am not needed after all…these last two weeks prove that to me but…_A tear slowly dripped down her face, a little shocked she wiped it away quickly. _I don't know what I am so sad about…I should be happy that I can get away from Neuro ._It began to rain and any other tears Yako may have shed were hidden in the downpour.

Meanwhile elsewhere….

Krayl blinked confused, something was different. "Is there something wrong with the papers, sir?" Waving off his concern and glancing at the aforementioned papers in question. _A decent job…they could be better_. Smiling warmly at the man in front of him, "No, they are perfectly done. So what else needed discussing?" The man began to talk about some issue with the company's stocks, tuning him out Krayl could care less what pointless ramble the man was going on about now.

Tapping his finger on the desk he began to ponder what the change he felt earlier was. _The mark I placed…I can't sense it anymore…_Standing up, he interrupted the man's speech, and he thanked the man for bringing the issue to his attention and made some comment that he'll address it later. Once the man left the room, the warm smile turned cold. Walking up to large window, he watched the humans struggle to get out the now pouring rain. _Pitiful weak beings…I don't know how they survive_. Placing a hand on the glass, his gaze became predatory. _The game has begun…_


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap. Enjoy! And thanks for the reviews!

* * *

_History is so boring...why do we have to learn it anyway, _she glanced at the clock and sighed, _and it seems that the clock is going extra slow today. _It's been five days since she stormed out of the office and has not received any contact from Neuro what-so-ever. After two days of moping she decided that her behavior was ridiculous, who cares if Neuro doesn't need her; she can now live a happy normal life and not be treated like a slave. _Least I keep telling myself that...who knew being normal was so boring. _Yako placed her head on the desk and groaned, she was starting to feel depressed again...great, _I'm going to beat it into my head...I don't care...I don't care...I don't care...I...what's that buzzing sound?_

"Yako...Yako...Yako...YAKO!" Yako jumped in her seat, rubbing her abused ear she turned to face her friend, "You didn't have to shout in my ear, Kaede." Kaede, her good friend for the past few years now looked at Yako in disbelief, "I've been calling your name for the last three minutes. The bell has already rung." "Oh...," Yako replied sheepishly, "Sorry Kaede, I wasn't really paying attention." Kaede just rolled her eyes, "I noticed. Well, let's get going...,"_I'm going to regret offering this but,_ "I'll treat you to some food." She mentally whimpered when she saw Yako's eyes lit up and sparkled. _My poor wallet...I pray this is not one of her extra hungry days._

Arriving at the café Yako proceeded to order everything on the menu. Kaede just looked to the heavens and thanked god that her food-obsessed friend was not really hungry. _I could almost cry in relief now._ The last time she treated her to food Yako ordered five of everything...it gave her nightmares for weeks. Being her best friend, Kaede noticed Yako behavior was off and did what any concerned friend would do...treat them and then grill them for answers. "So Yako..." "Hm?" Yako replied around a muffin she was currently munching on.

"Everything okay?" "Yeah...everything...is...fine..." The pauses were cause by Yako chewing, she was in heaven, it wasn't everyday her best friend treated her to food. "So how's work?" Yako chocked on the churro that she was eating and quickly grabbed the water her friend was offering. "Cough...umm...work is fine." Kaede noticed Yako wasn't looking at her in the eye when she said that. _So that's where the trouble is...hmm how much do I want to bet the problem lies with that creepy assistant of hers. _

"So what did that assistant of yours do this time," Kaede glared at Yako, she wasn't going to get out of answering, especially since she fed her. Yako gulped at the look she was receiving. "He didn't do anything really," Kaede became slightly alarmed when she spotted sadness radiating off her, "Neuro just proved something to me. I was wrong, he was right." She blinked, _was that it? There is probably more to it but I'll let it go for today. _"Oh is that so. Well we can't always be right so don't let it get you down," she placed a comforting hand on Yako's shoulder and was relieved that the sad aura her friend was letting off disappeared.

"Yeah, thanks Kaede." Kaede stood up and began to walk to the cashier...time to face her doom; she called back to Yako, "Take your time eating. I'm taking care of bill now and have to head to my job, I'll see you Monday." Yako waved her friend before she went back to eating, the desserts were delicious here. _I must have worried her. I'll try and make sure I won't anymore. _Yako left the café and decided to go walk around the park she discovered earlier, unaware of the man following her.


	8. Chapter 8

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap. Enjoy! And thanks for the reviews!

* * *

Noticing it was getting late, Yako left the park. _Yawn...I can't believe I fell asleep. Well that's one way of passing the time; _she thought ruefully while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, _though I really need to find a better use for my time now since I'm not forced to play detective. _Waiting at a signal for the light to change, she spotted someone familiar across the street.

_Isn't that...Krayl? Wow...he looks different with sunglasses and normal clothes on._ She watched Krayl enter a Raman shop that was on the corner of the street and couldn't help but laugh. _Who knew handsome and well-off guys ate at cheap Ramen shops on Saturday_._ Speaking of which...I'm kind of hungry myself and that Ramen does look good._

**Going a little back in time...**

Krayl was tired and miserable as he walked through the crowded streets, his boss vanished on him and his search for him proved to be a failure. _Where the hell did he go?_ The smile on his face almost slipped as he was jostled by the crowd of people. A strong urge to kill the humans who touched him caused his nails to turn to claws. Taking a deep breath he buried that urge and was proud to see his self-control hadn't failed him yet, deadly claws turned back into human nails.

However that didn't stop him from having rather sadistic thoughts. _I wish I could kill some of these humans...they already over populate the surface. I don't think they'd noticed if they were missing a few...hundred...or thousand_. Thoughts of killing kept him in a relatively good mood for the rest of the walk to his apartment. Originally he planned to spend his day in his apartment to get away from the human masses; he could only keep up his human façade for so long, but low to his surprise spotting his _toy_ in the café near his place, he couldn't ask for better luck.

Plans now changed, he began to follow her from a distance not ready to show himself yet. Expecting her to participate in the usual activities teens her age would normally do, he was surprised when she entered a park. Krayl was rather relieved he didn't have to follow her to mall, which he noticed was a place that young human females often went to socialize. He had enough of humans today. The park was rather soothing and peaceful, muscles that were tensed with stress loosened.

Krayl was finally able to relax. Lazily, he noticed that the one he was following dosed off. Seeing how she wasn't going anywhere soon, he too decided to have a small cat-nap in a nearby tree. Movement from his target caused his eye's to snap open. Yawning, he spotted the Sun low in the sky; _that was a rather nice nap._ Glancing down next, he watched his target make her way to the exit.

A smirk grew on his face, _time for some action now; I've been bored far too long. _Using his demonic speed he appeared on the opposite side of the street. Walking at a slow human pace he waited to be noticed. Feeling her eye's land on him, he smiled in success. Entering the Ramen Shop he got himself a table, placed an order, and waited. An evil grin spread across his face, _an_y_ minute now she'll enter and the fun can now begin._

**Present time again...**

Entering the shop, Yako couldn't help but drool, the delicious aroma of Ramen. Spotting Krayl she hesitated, unsure if it was alright to go over to him. _I only met the man once; he probably doesn't even remember me. Plus it looks like he is deep in thought, I shouldn't disturb him. Though I can't help but wonder why he still has his sunglasses on. _

Decision made she sat at a table away from him, placing her order of five bowls. Becoming lost in thought she began to wonder what Neuro was up to, it was rather strange he didn't make any effort to find her and drag her to the office. _That reminds me...what on earth did he do to me earlier? It felt like the power was suffocating me before the feeling of it changed to...an embrace, _Yako chocked on the water she was drinking,_ Ok Yako...you are clearly crazy, there is no way Neuro would embrace you, you are delusional girl. _

"Miss your order is ready." Relieved that her thoughts were interrupted, she accepted the food and began to chow down. _Wonderful food._ In surprise, she accidently inhaled a noodle and was soon sent into a coughing fit when the person she was spotted earlier sat across from her.

Krayl did not like to be ignored. He was disappointed when she did not greet him and proceeded to sit at the table farthest away from him. _Well that's no fun_. His order lay untouched before him, having arrived a few minutes ago. Watching Yako become engrossed in her thoughts caused something to snap, he was in no mood to wait any longer. Smirking he stood up, taking his food with him, _If she won't come to me, I guess I will have to go to her._

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AN: Now we know who was following her. What does Krayl have planned for Yako? What is Neuro up to? Review and hopefully I'll post the next chapter soon, its in the works.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap, it was done earlier than expected. Enjoy! And thanks for the reviews!

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"Sorry, did I startle you?"Seeing Krayl with a concerned face caused her brain to shut down momentarily. When Yako could breathe normally again, a blush spread across her face, _Oh man_… Yako began to fidget, looking at everything but the man in front of her, "It's alright; I just wasn't expecting you to sit at my table. I mean you looked deep in thought earlier and I didn't want to disturb you," putting a hand over her face, she mumbled the rest of her sentence, "even though I followed you in here…what was I thinking."

Krayl couldn't help but be greatly amused; _this human sure is something, time to play_. He raised an eyebrow in fake surprise, "You followed me?" Krayl almost wanted to laugh when he saw the blush darken on her face; _she's making this too easy_. "Umm…you see, I was in the park earlier today and I fell asleep by accident. So when I woke up and left, I spotted you across the street," he watched her give him a quick glance and mumble something that would be not be heard by humans, however he could easily hear the next words he knew that she didn't want him to hear, "You really look different in normal clothes, I almost didn't recognize you," Krayl felt rather smug at that moment, he knew that the human disguise he made was rather handsome; her voice went back to normal volume, " I saw the Ramen shop and was rather hungry myself…so it's not like I purposely followed you."

_Oh please don't make him think I'm a stalker_. Yako became nervous from the continued silence from the other end of the table; finally turning to look at him, the blush that faded came back in full force. Yako mentally groaned as she watched him shake with silent laughter.

_This is too amusing…I can't help it_; Krayl calmed down and his mouth formed a gentle smile, though a wide grin threatened to crack it, raised his head from his arms looking at his embarrassed toy, _that's enough teasing…for now…she makes it too fun, time to lay on the charm._ "I'm sorry. It's been a rather hard day; I didn't mean to fluster you. Though I have to say you are rather cute when you are."

_I don't think I've blushed this much in my entire life_. Yako didn't know what to say to that, so she turned her attention to her now cold food. _This is a first…for some reason I'm not hungry anymore._ "So, did you make it in time for whatever you were late for?" Her attention snapped back to Krayl, _how did he know I was late for something?_ "You were running rather fast when you got that call, so did you make it?" _Did he read my mind?_ Yako was startled when Krayl started laughing. "No…I …didn't read your mind, it's just that you're real easy to read." _Oh…great…more blushing_. Her embarrassment quickly faded as she thought of her last visit to the office, _no...no…no…don't start feeling depressed now._

Krayl was puzzled as her emotions did a one-eighty. _She's depressed now…well that's strange, I didn't expect that._ _Well I can't have my toy feeling depressed._ Standing up he went over to Yako's side of the table, grabbing her hand he tugged her out of chair. Leaving some bills on the table he paid for both their meals and led them out of the shop into the night.

**With Neuro at the office…**

Neuro was not in a good mood. Ever since the girl stormed out, as to why she did that he was still puzzled; Neuro did not like to be confused. _The slave has been slacking on her duty to serve me._ Normally by now he would have gone off to find the miserable worm, however he decided that was too much of a task to be bothered with (He already searched the normal places she frequented and could not find her). _The slave is going to be punished, oh yes, she is going to rue the day that she ignored me._

Truth be told, a foreign feeling ailed Neuro and it was slowly chipping away his sanity. Everyday Yako didn't come to the office; Neuro solved less and less mysteries on his own. Neuro missed the girl and he didn't even know.

**Elsewhere…**

A man could be seen walking in the darkness; there were no lights to be found on this old dirt road. A train whistle pierced the silence; it could easily be heard in the distance. The man gave pause on his trek before continuing. The man's eyes glowed red and coldly observed the oncoming train. Stepping onto the railroad tracks, he turned to face the train, a malicious grin spread across his face. The whistle sounded again, this time closer. A chilling laugh came from the man; the train was almost upon him.

One last whistle was heard before the sound of crunching metal ripped through the night. Faint screams were abruptly cut off and an eerie silence spread. Calmly the man walked away from the wreck and continued towards the city. He had his fun for now; it was time to see what this so called toy was, his partner was probably looking for him by now.

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AN: Review, please and thank you!


	10. Chapter 10

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap. Enjoy! And thanks for the reviews!

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Yako allowed herself to be led, though she was still rather surprised, _why did he drag me out of the shop? Did I miss something? _She opened her mouth to question Krayl but was interrupted before she could say anything. "Like I said earlier, you are rather easy to read. You were feeling depressed just a moment ago," _Great going Yako, cause people to worry over you, first Kaede and now Krayl, _" Well I don't know what happened, but I'd rather not have you feeling down, so if you'd like would you like to tell me about it?"

Yako noticed they had stopped outside some apartment buildings, _I must be really out of it, and I didn't even pay attention to where he was leading me. Real smart Yako...it seems you'll follow anyone these days. _Glancing at Krayl, she spotted a gentle and encouraging smile, for some reason she felt compelled to tell him everything. _Krayl has been very kind to me...more so than 'he' would. Even though I haven't known him very long...I feel like I can trust him..._

Krayl watched her mentally debate; he knew it was only a matter of time before she caved. _Yes Yako...trust me...trust me, _the darkness hid the brief instant that the kind smile turned wicked. Seeing the trust in her eyes he knew he won. _Success. _With one of his hand still holding hers, he gestured to the apartments behind him with the other. "If it's alright we can talk in my apartment."

Entering the apartment Yako was surprised to see it was rather plain. "Make yourself comfortable, I'll be right back." She made her way over to the couch and watched Krayl head to the back of the apartment. Now that she was alone she began to have doubts about what she was about to do. Yako groaned and placed her head in her lap, _Well Yako-girl do you really want to take this leap? Do you really want to tell him everything? _

She sighed heavily; _the worst that can happen is that he'll think you're crazy._ "Sorry about that," She jumped at his voice, raising her head she noticed he had pulled up a chair and was sitting across from her, _I didn't even hear him come back, _"whenever you're ready please feel free to tell me about your troubles." Noticing he had finally removed his sunglasses she stared into warm golden orbs. The warm and gentle eyes erased the doubts from her mind. Yako opened her mouth and began to tell him everything.

**With Neuro**

Neuro's eyes snapped open from the nap he was taking, the mark he placed on Yako was fading. A low growl rose from his chest, _a demon is in contact with MY property and is erasing my mark._ Neuro began to regret not keeping a closer eye on his slave and became slightly worried about her safety. Closing his eyes he focused on the remains of his mark, _the worm is not feeling threatened...tch the mark is gone._ Frustration shone in his eyes and the low growl became louder. He began pacing the length of the office.

_The slave is never leaving my sight...never ever again...I'll chain her up and have her never leave this building. _Pausing mid-pace he frowned, _what's wrong with me...why do I have...such...attachment to the cockroach...being up the surface this long has affected me more than I thought._ Dismissing his thoughts he left the building, _the slave has to come to her home sometime...I'll wait for her there. _A feral chuckle left his mouth, the slave is not going to be going anywhere for a long time after he is through with her.

**Back with Yako...**

_Well so far so good...least he hasn't called me insane yet. _"Umm...I know my story may not sound that believable, with me talking about demons and such..."

Krayl listened patiently to her story, the truth of why she became famous and her interactions with Neuro, and couldn't be more amused. _Oh my, this poor girl doesn't know anything about demon behavior. _Putting a hand over his mouth, he made it look like he was thinking over what he just heard, but in reality he was trying to prevent himself from bursting out laughing.

_Abuse equals interest; this so-called I don't need you phase equals you are necessary to the one in question ,proof was the phone calls; lastly growling and swathing you with one's power equals you belong to them and he is not going to allow anyone else to touch you...oh man this is too funny. _When he was sure he wouldn't laugh he removed his hand and smiled to reassure the girl. "I don't believe you have any reason to lie, and if you say demons exist I'll believe you." _I should hope that I would believe in my own existence._

Yako sighed in relief and looked at Krayl gratefully. _Man, I didn't know it would feel this great to get this off my chest. _Noticing the clock on the wall, she realized with dread how late it had gotten.

Noticing where her gaze went, he too noticed it was rather late. About to offer to walk her home, he withheld it as he heard one of his back room windows slide open. _I waste my time earlier looking for him and the bastard comes here. _"I probably should head home..." Focusing his attention back on the girl, he nodded, "I didn't realize how late it had gotten. Would you like me to walk you home?" _You better not come out now... _"No it's alright, I can walk back myself." "Well at least allow me to accompany you to the street."

Before she could even nod, he grabbed her hand and herded her out the door. As he turned around to shut the door he spotted two red eyes staring him. Krayl glared at the other demon and whispered under his breath, "Make yourself comfortable, you have lots of explaining to do, and don't you dare disappear again," he quickly shut the door before his little guest thought something was strange.

Reaching the street in no time, Yako turned to her companion rather bashful, "Thank you for listening to me."

"It was no trouble at all and thank you for telling me. I imagine it wasn't easy to confide something like this," _Yes...thank you for giving me such an amusing evening. _Krayl saw a small blush on Yako's cheeks and was rather grateful she wasn't looking at his face, for if she was she would have seen a positively devilish smirk upon his lips. _I think I'll give my little toy a reward._ He took one hand and gently turned her face towards his, making a soft caress on her lips with his thumb, leaned down to place a soft kiss upon her lips.

Yako's brain took a vacation, it was long gone. The kiss was over soon enough, she didn't even hear the small goodbye Krayl whispered in her ear before he pulled away and went back to his apartment; no coherent thoughts were able to run through her blank mind. Slowly her brain's thinking functions came back and all she could think was, _Kiss...Kiss...He kissed me... _

Seeing that the culprit was gone, she dazedly walked back home. Unlocking the house with her key she made the realization; _that was my first kiss. _Leaving her shoes at the entrance way and placing her keys on the counter, she made her way to her room. Turning on the light in her room, Yako froze as familiar green eyes pinned her in place. _What's he doing here?_

_So the Slave is finally home. _Neuro was getting rather impatient waiting for Yako, he doesn't like to wait for anything. He watched the door knob turn and the door open. As the light was turned on, Neuro finally got a good look at his slave. He was not happy.

Seeing Neuro in her room was not what she expected. Hearing a loud..._is that a growl? _Sound coming from Neuro was not what she expected. Being picked up by the said growling demon was not what she expected. Most importantly of all she did not expect said growling, obviously very angry demon, to smash his lips against hers in a harsh kiss.

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AN: Dun Dun Dun...Review you know you want to, please and thank you!


	11. Chapter 11

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap. Enjoy! And thanks for the reviews!

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Yako belatedly wondered if she had a sign that said kiss me on her person. She remained frozen, too overcome with shock to do much, _why is he kissing me or maybe a better question why did he start kissing me...is he sick? Do demons even get sick?_ Though that shock wore off pretty quickly and she began to struggle in earnest to get away.

Yako soon found that very futile as she couldn't budge Neuro's arms that were firmly wrapped around her waist and that every time she moved the arms tightened around her to prevent her escape. _Seeing how struggling is not working maybe I should try being docile_. She mentally sighed in relief as she felt Neuro release her lips; _that seemed to work...or maybe not._ Yako contained a small shudder as Neuro made small kisses down her neck, _Okay...I think he sick...very sick...something is definitely wrong with him. _She shivered, _is he licking my neck?_

Neuro's mind was in a rage; his property was contaminated by a foreign demon's touch. _SHE IS MINE! _He claimed her lips roughly, determined have his kiss erase the other demon's from her mind. Neuro almost wanted to growl in displeasure when he felt his slave try and get away from him, she was his property to do as he pleased. When he felt her relax, he left her lips to make small kisses down her neck; he was going to leave a permanent mark that no demon could erase. Licking the spot where he could feel her pulse rapidly beating, Neuro bit down hard.

Yako's scream couldn't leave her throat, it hurt so much. Tears welled up, _why is he doing this? Neuro's never hurt me this bad before. It's like I don't even know him anymore. _She silently began to cry. _Why? _When Neuro's mouth left her neck and he released his grip on her, she took the chance to back far away from him. Yako knew she was at his mercy; she was trapped as he was the one who was standing between her and the door. Fearfully she stared at the man, no...demon, she thought she could trust.

He didn't look different on the surface, but she knew something changed between them. Queasy she stared at her blood on his mouth before she shifted her gaze to his eyes. His gaze burned her and pinned her where she stood. Shakily she raised a hand to her neck to staunch the blood that was slowly trickling, but before she could even touch her neck the distance between her and Neuro vanished in a blink of an eye.

He could feel and smell her fear...and he didn't like it one bit. Neuro felt slightly regretful that he caused his slave to fear him but he knew he had to take action now before his property became another's. Just thinking about it brought back his rage, he found her first and thus she belonged to him and only him. After releasing her, he just observed and gave her time to calm down. When he watched her move her hand to her neck, he knew he was going to invade her space too soon for her liking.

Gently grabbing her hand, he ignored the spike of fear she left off. _Though it should be unnecessary to explain my actions, maybe I should so this dishrag would stop feeling this ridiculous emotion in my presence._ Neuro released her hand and grabbed her chin, tilting her head so her neck was bared toward him, paying no heed to the soft whimper Yako let off, he glanced at the still bleeding bite mark. _I probably should make it stop bleeding, _lowering his head, ignoring how the slave tensed up, he licked and cleaned the blood off her neck.

Yako did not like how Neuro was nearing her neck again, she was sick with fear. She let out a shuddering gasp as Neuro began licking the bite. Unconsciously she began to relax when she realized all he was doing was licking her, _the pain...it's going away. _Yako began to feel drowsy and her eyes began to close, _somehow...this feels very soothing._ Yako drained, leaned against Neuro and calmly fell asleep.

When he felt the slave fall asleep, he removed his head from her neck and carefully picked her up. Using one of his abilities, he appeared on the sidewalk outside. Neuro was heading to their office, slave in hand. When she next awoke he planned to inform her about a few things about the demons roaming the surface. He would find the demon she met, oh yes, he would find him alright and he will slowly kill him.

**With Krayl...**

After leaving Yako, he opened his apartment door and was displeased with what he found inside. To sum it up, it was a mess. Sighing heavily, he kicked the broken chair out of his way and slammed the door. _Every single time...every time that bastard comes over here...he just has to destroy my apartment doesn't he._ Not seeing the culprit in the so-called living room, he stormed to the back rooms. Hearing a crash from his bedroom, he swung open the door with a bang. Krayl stared at his boss with annoyance; the crash was one of the lamps he had on a dresser. _I wonder how much I'm going to have to replace when this visit is over_. Red eyes stared at him coldly and gently put the other lamp back on the dresser, it wouldn't face destruction...yet. Running a hand through his black spiky hair he kindly informed Krayl, "You took too long to get back."

Krayl gritting his teeth he bit out, "I apologize, Lioth. For making you wait so terribly long." Lioth just smirked, it was fun showing his minion who's boss. Moving towards the bed, he sat on the edge. "So...that human girl is the _toy_?" Krayl nodded, "But before we get into that...where on earth did you go!?" Seeing a malicious grin, Krayl knew he went off to have some fun. Krayl sighed; "How many did you kill this time?" Lioth pondered the question, "Not sure...didn't count how many were on the train." Rolling his eyes, Krayl decided it was too much trouble to lecture him, "Well back to the girl. Yes, she is the one connected to Neuro." Lioth laughed, "Excellent. I'll pay him a visit later...so does this girl trust you?" Krayl grinned evilly, "Absolutely." Standing up, Lioth headed towards the window, "Tomorrow, Krayl, tomorrow is when we strike."


	12. Chapter 12

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap. Enjoy!

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Yako could feel the sun baking her as it brought her back to the world of the living. Rolling over, she buried her head into a pillow to hide her eyes from the sun. '_Why is my bed so uncomfortable?_' Lifting her head up from its resting place she glanced around and saw that she was in her office, her head fell back down to the pillow, Neuro must have brought her here. It took her a few moments to realize what was wrong with this picture. Shooting up from the couch she glanced around frantically, sighing in relief when she didn't see Neuro. Yako slumped back onto the couch and let out a soft groan, she could feel a headache forming. '_I finally opened Pandora 's Box, got kissed two times, and practically had my throat ripped out...it was such a fun night.' _

Hesitantly she raised her hand to her throat and was surprised not to feel anything. Getting up she walked over to the office's bathroom to examine her neck in the mirror. Curiously, there was no evidence of a bite mark, yet there was something...a small mark. '_It looks like one of Neuro's signature triangles'_

Yako poked the mark and winced; there was a sharp pain when she touched it. She knew staring at it wouldn't give her answers so she left the bathroom. Yako noticed a paper on Neuro's desk which was odd since he usually left it spotless. She saw that the paper was addressed to her.

**Slave,**

**Stay in the office and don't leave...**_'Why should I after your weird behavior yesterday' _Yako wasn't feeling fearful of Neuro anymore and was rather ticked off at him for being confusing. **I'm taking care of the demonic presence that has been hovering around you lately, it has become careless and I can easily track it now. **'A _Demonic presence around me? What is he talking about?' _**I better find a stack of puzzles by the time I come back. **'_Slave driver like always' _**Oh yeah, before I forget, I locked the door so don't expect to get out anytime soon.**

Yako sighed and placed the paper back onto the desk, glancing at the door she spotted the huge monstrous lock Neuro placed on it. '_How creepy...it grinned at me.' _Flopping back onto the couch she began to contemplate the letter. '_Well nothing it the letter explains why he bit me...and what's this demonic presence he's talking about? There is another demon on earth?' _Yako shuddered at the thought; one demon was more than enough for her.

A loud knock on the door caused Yako to jump. '_Who could that be?' _"Who's there?" She felt slightly nervous when she got no response. '_Well least the door is locked...' _A loud bang caused her to let out a small yelp. She stared in horrified awe as the huge lock on the door began to crack. The door splintered and pieces of wood went flying and the lock fell with a big clunk. Two red eyes gazed back at her from the now ruined door and chilling laugh penetrated the room. Yako had a feeling of dread crawl down her spine. _'I have a feeling I'm going to be in serious trouble here.'_


	13. Chapter 13

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap. Enjoy!

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Krayl was sitting at one of the tables outside the café reading the newspaper, when he felt the need to move for self-preservation. He leaped to the other side of the street, moving too fast for the human eye to see, and glanced over his shoulder to see the now crushed table.

_Well that was rather fast…I didn't expect him to find me so soon._He pressed a button on his pager that was attached belt; it was time to put the plan into action. Krayl started running to lead Neuro far away from the city as possible, though he was somewhat dismayed that Neuro was gaining far too quickly for his tastes. _Stupid humans are in the way_. Jumping up on to the nearest building, he began to chant a spell to use later, as he continued to run away by jumping across the building tops.

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Yako slowly started to back away from the door, though she knew that wouldn't be any help since the only exit was blocked by a man with scary red eyes and a smirk that sent chills down her spine. Her senses just screamed DEMON and she knew that he was very bad news. "I'm sorry about the door, but you must have not heard me when I knocked." The grin on his face told her that he was getting some sick pleasure out of this, determined not to let this demon push her around she steeled her nerves.

"Who…who are you and why did you come here?" Her newly found courage quickly vanished as the demon laughed. "No need to act so brave Detective Yako," she felt increasingly nervous as the demon slowly walked closer to her, "You may call me Lioth and as to why am I here…" Yako let out a little squeak as Lioth grabbed her hand and tugged her close, "I need you to solve a case for me." Yako found herself to have trouble breathing.

"Is something wrong Detective? You seem to be gasping for air," she found his gaze and was sick with fear as she read the murderous intent in his eyes, "This case should be easy for someone of your caliber." Yako felt dizzy with the lack of air and everything began to fade. The last thing she noticed was the demon brushing his hand across her neck, '_that's…where….that…mark…is'_; a dark chuckle followed her into darkness as she fell.

Lioth was pleased with how smoothly things went and seeing that mark on her neck was icing on the cake. _Foolish Neuro, I didn't expect you to mark her. The bait has suddenly gotten more valuable_. With deceptive gentleness he picked up Yako from the floor and calmly walked out through the smashed door. With a wave of his free hand he fixed the door to make it appear as it did before. An evil grin split his face; _I'll leave a little gift in the office for when he comes back._ An illusion of a blood splattered, dead Yako laid on the office floor.

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Neuro was getting annoyed with this chase, already he has been led out of the city and were now in the countryside. If he didn't have something against this demon he would have given up awhile ago, all this running was bothersome. He briefly though of Yako back in their office, '_Hmm…I'll have to explain my actions when I get back,_' a grin appeared on his face, '_I think I'll have fun with that_,' the grin vanished soon though as he let out a growl of frustration, '_As soon I catch this demon and slowly kill him for touching what's mine'_ With that thought he put on a burst of speed and continued the chase.

Krayl was bored with this running and let out a yawn. _This is getting quite boring, why does Lioth get to have the fun job_. He glanced back and almost tripped in surprise, which would have been rather embarrassing for him. _He is gaining speed… oh crap_. Krayl quickly dodged the demon bolt Neuro threw at him.

_I don't think that's wise of him to toss around his limited energy…though too bad he doesn't know that._ Dodging the bolt caused him to slow down and the distance between the two demons began to shrink. Focusing his attention completely on the gaining demon, he almost fell in surprise when he felt his pager go off. _Finally…I felt that I couldn't keep this up much longer._ Krayl started to laugh; it's going to get very interesting soon. He stopped running and prepared to face Neuro.

When the demon started to laugh and suddenly stopped running, Neuro felt very suspicious and halted a few feet away from the demon. "Neuro, Neuro…how good is it to see you after such a long time." He stared blankly at this obviously crazed demon and was pretty sure he didn't know him.

"Oh I'm sad, you don't remember me? Well, no matter, I'm sure you will soon. Anyways, I have to say you sure know how to pick your pets, that human female was very entertaining," Neuro let out a fierce growl, tensing to strike, "It's time for me to go as I can now see, well a word of advice before I go," the grin on the demon's face was ticking Neuro off, "One, I'm not the only demon and two, you need to protect your toy better."

He was confused momentarily, before it hit and Neuro felt for the very first time an emotion called dread. While he was dazed, he briefly noted that the demon in front of him vanished, _this demon's job was to lure me away from Yako and it worked_. Letting out a roar of rage, he immediately began to run back to Yako, hoping he wasn't too late. _Slave, you better be there when I get back or there will be hell to pay._


	14. Chapter 14

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap, sorry it took so long but its extra long this time. Enjoy and thanks for the reviews, they make me very happy!

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The first thing Yako noticed was her pounding head when opened her eyes. The next thing she noticed was that she couldn't see at all, it was pitch-black. _How did I get here? Where on earth am I? A better question why can't I remember…_. Her mind remained suspiciously blank. _Well I have the feeling no matter how much I try and force myself I won't recall anything, so I'll try and forget that I have no clue where I am besides that it's dark and spooky_.

She felt unnerved; it was just too dark and it had a very obvious unnatural feel to it to boot. Yako groaned, _Why do I always get into these troubling situations; oh yeah it's because I'm practically, no wait…I am a slave to an over bearing puzzle eating demon._She let out a heavy sigh and figured that the best thing to do was to remain where she was, no sense to move when she couldn't see her own two feet. However, when an ominous growl emerged from the darkness, she began to rethink her thoughts of staying still. Cautiously, she stood up very slowly; Yako had no desire to goad the thing that made that growl into attacking her. _I think that sound came from somewhere behind me…so my best bet will be to move in to opposite direction…I hope._

She took a steadying breath and slowly took a step, when the growl came again she couldn't help but freeze. _This is not good…not good...not good._Working up her nerve, she decided just staying there wasn't going to help her any and it would be best to get it over with quickly and painlessly as possible. Yako started to run blindly in the dark in the direction she hoped the growl didn't come from.

**Elsewhere….**

Neuro noticed that his speed was slowing down; _I guess I used more power than I thought…tch._ The sight of the city couldn't have appeared fast enough, with the sense of urgency and slight panic that was smothering him. Running past familiar streets and buildings, he ignored everything around him, it was necessary to reach his and the slave's office in time. Racing up the stairs, he smashed the door open when he reached his floor and the sight he saw in the room caused him to freeze.

Demonic green eyes widened in disbelief and shock. Neuro's exhaustion finally hit him hard at this point; he staggered towards the broken body on the floor. He let out a hiss and closed his eyes, blocking his vision from the corpse, when an agonizing pain ripped through his body centering on his heart. _Why…Why does this hurt?....I'm not injured….is a emotion causing me to feel this pain?....I don't like it….I don't like it at all. _

Opening his eyes he forced himself to look at the image on his floor, the pain was excruciating. _I…I…was too late._Neuro collapsed to his knees; the emotional strain and his exhaustion were too much for him to remain standing. He slowly crawled the few remaining few separating him from Yako, hesitantly he moved his hand to touch her. _She's cold…not warm like she usually is_, his other hand clenched into a fist, _there is blood everywhere…_ The pain, there was too much pain; he didn't know how to deal with it.

Standing to his feet he moved quickly away from the body, he couldn't look any longer. Neuro let out a humorless chuckle; _I must be more human than demon than I thought if a bloody corpse makes me feel ill_. Moving to the couch he fell bodily onto it as he slowly fell unconscious, he needed to rest desperately, _I…I'll clean up …after ….  
_

**Few hours later and back with Yako...**

Yako had a feeling that whatever was with her in this darkness had some sort of sadistic humor. Every time she ran too far in one direction the growl would seem to emerge from there. She felt like a chicken running with her head cut off in this darkness, it was getting ridiculous. At least she learned something from her frantic scrambling; the growling thing had no intention of hurting her, well at least for now, she had a high suspicion that it was just playing with her. Yako frowned and sunk to the ground tiredly, wherever she was it was a very large place; she hadn't run into any walls. _Well that was pointless and very frustrating_.

When the growl sounded again, Yako idly glared in the direction where it came from, she wasn't going to move any more. _The stupid thing can leave me the hell alone; I'm tired playing its game_. The growl came again, she noticed it was closer this time. Yako remained firm in her decision not to move. She tensed in fear however when the next growl became louder;_ why do I have the terrible feeling its right behind me now….maybe it was unwise to stop moving_; Yako could practically feel the thing's breath on her. Frozen in place, she waited for the thing to make its next move and hoped that the move would not result in her getting eaten or maimed.

Seconds crawled by and the tension was starting to get to Yako, her mind wasn't helping either by thinking of all sorts of terrible things it could do to her. What happened next though was certainly nothing she pictured it doing; it was laughing, well more of a growl than a laugh, but she could definitely tell it was laughing at her and Yako was not amused at all. _Its dark and spooky, I find I have some company with me in this place that scares the life out of me, and then it plays this messed up herding game with me, and then the thing LAUGHS AT ME! I don't know what's funny about this at all…I want to go home_, she felt tears building up, _Neuro where are you? Why haven't you gotten me out of this situation yet?_ "So you finally stopped running, human," the voice caused her to start in surprise, _the thing could speak?_

Yako blinked back her tears and faced the voice; she was determined to face whatever it was. "I finally realized it was quite futile to run and grew rather tired of the whole business. I know I'm not going to be able to get out of her soon, so I decided to just sit here and not waste my energy." "I see," the voice replied amused, "That's such a shame…I was having a great deal of fun chasing you." Yako began to fume, _that bastard…I knew it… I knew he was getting entertainment from this_.

"Is there any reason why it's so dark here and where is here exactly?" "Oh, I forgot that humans have such inferior vision, it's actually quite light in here; anyways the reason why is that I quite prefer the dark and I see no real reason to have light on. As to where we are…I don't see why I have to tell you, but if it makes you feel better we are still on earth." Yako face faulted, that didn't tell her much. _If it's not going to tell me anything I will just remain silent._

Krayl was rather amused with the detective's bravado, it was very fragile and he knew it wouldn't take much to break it. Lioth had given him the task to watch over her for now while he prepared the portal back home, the next stage of their plan would take place in Hell. At first he found it very dull and boring watching her, an unconscious person provides no entertainment. When she woke up however, his entertainment was in great abundance. When she didn't do much at first, he felt rather disappointed, so he sought to rectify that by announcing his presence with a growl and was very pleased with the results. Running prey was always fun to chase down.

It was very relaxing to be in his more natural form for the first time in a few months, maintaining a human appearance all the time was annoying. So Krayl spent his time herding her in the directions he chose at his fancy, watching her panic, listening to her small thundering heartbeat, and in the end watching her realize how futile her actions were. When the girl stopped running he tried to get up her up and going again, but she seemed determined not to move. Not quite ready to give up his fun, he began talking to her when he first smelled her tears, he didn't really want to deal with a crying human.

Watching her puff up in anger, causing the tears to vanish was a great relief and rather amusing. Krayl gave vague answers to her questions to annoy her, hoping that she would provide an entertaining conversation with her displeasure. Minutes went by and it remained rather quiet, he ended up rather unsatisfied with her obvious intent to remain silent. A faint sound caused his attention to be diverted from the girl; he watched a door open on the far side of the room and saw a fairly pleased Lioth step through the door.

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Red eyes easily spotted the two figures in the dark gloom; one who was a rather large feline at the moment and the other, a sulking human female. Lioth watched the cat's tail absentmindedly swish back and forth, before seeing a rather feline grin spread across his subordinate's face; he looked like the cat that got the cream. Lioth raised an eyebrow in speculation; it looks like he had some fun tormenting the human girl, shrugging he dismissed the matter; he didn't really care what happened as long as she wasn't injured. They still needed her for a bit longer. "Did you have your fun?"

The new voice gave Yako the chills, something about it just sounded evil. Her tormenter replied with a too cheerful 'Yes' in her opinion. "The portal is open, grab the girl so we can leave." She glanced in the direction of new voice in apprehension, _what is he talking about...what Portal? What does he mean by leaving?_Yako felt the ever increasing need to run again, though before she could even stand and attempt to move, she felt her tormenter's presence break her personal space bubble and felt something clamp onto the back of her shirt.

Yako stifled a scream as she found herself dangling from her tormentor's mouth. _I had a feeling he wasn't human…why did that feeling have to be right._Feeling that it wouldn't be wise to struggle, she remained still as possible. Hearing her tormentor's knowing chuckling, well one of its laughing growls again, tempted Yako to be difficult. After a few minutes of dangling like a swinging piece of meat, Yako noticed that it was getting lighter; she could see the back of the other walking in front of them.

_Why does that guy seem familiar?_Yako racked her brain trying to place where she's seen that man before. Her thoughts were interrupted when she was abruptly dropped to the ground. Irritated, Yako turned around to give her tormentor a piece of her mind and found herself staring in feared awe. _Large…cat…no…a demon._ Its feline gaze made her feel like she was a small as an insignificant mouse. A dark chuckle had her turn around in dread and familiar red eyes pierce her. Tremors of terror crawled up her spine as she finally realized why he was familiar.

"Never seen a demon in their true form before have you, girl?" Lioth's voice positively oozed evil delight when he saw the feared recognition of him appear in her eyes. _Yess...fear me human girl, you should be very afraid. You have no chance of escaping from us. _He looked to Krayl and saw that he was still watching the girl, an amused air hung about the giant demonic feline. Catching his eye, Lioth motioned that he should go through the portal first. Receiving a nod from the cat, Lioth turned his attention back to the girl who was now staring at the moving Krayl with apprehension. He smirked when her attention quickly snapped back to him, _smart human…you know I'm the more deadly one._

When the demon feline started to move, she found herself staring with trepidation, Yako had no clue what these guys were up to. Watching the cat almost lazily amble past her, she realized that the demon, _what was his name…oh yeah… it was Lioth_, was the one who she better keep a close eye on. Tensing but not moving, Yako saw Lioth walking towards her. "Smart girl, you know better than to run away from a demon." Yako's arm was soon encased in a tight grip and she was made to stand. Staring into his cold red eyes, she allowed herself to be dragged to the other side of this room.

An awful smell soon became pretty noticeable to her the further they went, with her free hand she covered her nose and had to force herself not to gag at the odor. "Ah, I see you can smell the exquisite aroma of Hell. Quite nice isn't it." Yako couldn't breathe and she found herself gasping, the air had become hot and stifling on top of that awful scent. "Come now, It's not that bad. You'll get used to it soon enough." _I feel faint… Neuro….Neuro where are you? Why haven't you come and saved…me…_ The last thing she saw were icy red eyes staring at her dispassionately.


	15. Chapter 15

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap, sorry it took so long, nasty writers block . Enjoy and thanks for the reviews, they make me very happy!

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Neuro was puzzled; for the life of him he couldn't remember how he appeared in this strange corridor. He noticed that the corridor seemed to go on endlessly, it was rather plain with only a red rug covering the floor, and there didn't seem to be an exit anywhere.

Observing his surroundings critically, he had a high suspicion something wasn't quite right. _What was I doing before this?_ Neuro tried to recall his memories, but was rather baffled when he seemly couldn't recall anything at all. _Well that's rather strange._ Standing still wasn't going to give him any answers and with quick steps he moved down the hallway, maybe there was an answer out there somewhere.

Noticeably when he began moving, the corridor began to change further ahead and the walls seem to warp. Approaching one of the walls, Neuro saw a distorted image of a different corridor; at the end of it he noticed a red door. Glancing through the other distortion on the opposite wall, he saw a similar image yet the door at the end was white. The walls returned to normal slowly and soon the walls appeared like they had in the beginning. Neuro didn't even bat an eyelid, gazing at the spots intently as if he knew the doors were there from the beginning. _Now...which door to choose?_

The red door had an ominous feel to it though Neuro wasn't bothered by it, the feeling it left off reminded him of home. With the white door however, Neuro noticed it left off a variety of feelings, the prominent being fondness. Neuro couldn't remember being fond of anything in long life so he was perplexed. _I always enjoy a puzzle so I believe I shall see where this white door leads. _With that thought the white door appeared. Neuro opened the door and saw that it led to some sort of office that struck a familiar chord within him. _This place...I feel that I should know it..._ Neuro found that he couldn't take a step through the doorway; raising his hand he felt that there was a barrier of some sort preventing him from accessing the room.

Neuro felt displeased, it was like someone was denying him access to his own territory......and he even didn't know why he associated this office as part his territory. It was the sudden movement in room that drew him away from his thoughts. The room was no longer empty; a human female woman entered the office through the door on the far side of the room. He noted that she seem apprehensive and was gazing around the room warily. Neuro stared at the female and was surprised; somehow he knew she was looking for him. When the woman sighed in relief obviously not finding him present, Neuro found himself amused by that little action. _Who is this human? I evidently allow her to enter my territory...is she my slave? _

Neuro watched the woman reach into a bag that he just noticed she was carrying, pulling out...a wrapped box? The human placed it on the red desk and seemed to stare... affectionately, into space. Neuro was baffled; _if this one was a slave wouldn't she be gazing in fear and not giving me gifts? Who is this woman...., _he stifled the frustrated growl emerging from his throat, _I have a feeling that she is important but I can't seem to remember encountering any human woman or taking them into my service. _

There was a bright flash and the scene inside the room changed, where there was once a young woman there was a girl sleeping on the couch...a really familiar girl. Neuro's eyes greedily soaked up the familiar image, immediately forgetting about the woman. _Yako...the girl's name is Yako. _Memories surrounding Yako slowly came back, Neuro now remember why he owned an office and considered the girl HIS. _This girl belongs to me...she is my slave...my property...my everything, _Neuro frowned, _something seems wrong with my memories however...I'm forgetting something important....why am I..._ The office and Yako vanished, Neuro found himself feeling panicked and was too worried to feel disgusted about all human emotions he knew he was feeling, _Where did she go...I can't protect, _Neuro closed the white door that now only held swirling mist behind it, _wait...what do I need to protect her from? _

Neuro turned around to face the red door; it had a much more malicious feeling to it than it did earlier. Gripping the knob, Neuro ignored the uneasy feeling the door caused him and wrenched open the door. The sight that greeted him made him feel ill. _Why... why is she dead? Where was I? What was I doing... why wasn't I there?!_ .The familiar horrifying image burned his eyes; the broken, bloody figure of Yako was engrained in his mind, never to leave again. His hands clenched into fists, the door knob now lay crushed at his feet; it didn't even stand a chance. Neuro remained frozen in place; the horrifying recognizable pain was overwhelming him once again. He let out a pained roar, hands now clawing at his own eyes as if it would remove his sight to prevent him from seeing that appalling sight. _She's dead. Dead... Dead... DEAD. Why? GOD DAMNIT ...WHY? WHY IS SHE DEAD?!_

Neuro's eyes lost their luster and his knees buckled, his hands now laid listlessly at his sides; he remembered everything now. _The demons...the other demon killed her...two came up to the surface...she didn't know...one was playing with her...I chased that one...it was supposed to distract me...it worked...I didn't realize....I was too late...the other demon got her..._ Neuro was unaware of the red door closing and fading away; he was lost in his mind. He was even unaware when the corridor vanished and he was left in a black void of nothingness. The silence would have been oppressive if it wasn't for a voice that materialized out of the darkness.

A faint voice called, "Neuro."Oblivious to the voice, Neuro remained unresponsive. The voice sounding even fainter called again, but it was familiar, painfully so, "Neuro, where are you? Why haven't you come and saved...me..." A fierce growl emerged from Neuro's throat; it was the only response he could give right now to the being set on torturing him. It was a warning not to call out to him again with that voice; Neuro did not appreciate hearing HER voice, it made him recall his failure and the pain that came with it. _Whatever_ _it is, it better not do that again, I do not like to be messed with and right now if I could see the bastard I would with great pleasure kill it. _The voice called again, "Neuro," this time it was louder as if the acknowledgement Neuro gave encouraged it.

Neuro's eyes flashed with suppressed pain before they hardened into cold, cutting green. _It had its warning..._ His eyes glowed in the darkness, scanning the surroundings to seek out the origin of the voice; he noticed one area in the darkness seemed lighter. _There....the culprit is there. _The cold rage that filled him would only leave with the being's death. A quick release of his demonic power caused him to show more of his true colors; hands to turn into claws, teeth more pointed, and a more feral light shone in his eyes.

A fast sprint toward the brightest spot revealed that the cause for the light was another white door, but this one was brightly glowing; now walking, he slowly approached the door. The voice called again desperately, "Neuro." The voice was coming from behind the door. Eyes flashing with rage, Neuro smashed open the door; the sight that greeted him on the other side however caused his rage to wither away into nothingness and left behind a dull ache. It was similar the other doors by not allowing him to enter the room yet at the same time it was vastly different, his past self was in the scene this time.

Neuro watched him as he gently put Yako on the couch and then watched him move to the desk to leave behind a note._ I remember...I did this before...I went to go chase that demon_. He closed his eyes when he saw his past self leave the office; _I wonder if this door is going to show me her being killed._ Neuro's emotions began to choke him, he did not want to watch it happen, but his eyes opened unwillingly and forced him to witness Yako's last moments.

He watched the sun gently wake her. He saw her panicked expression on her face when she was finally awake enough to recall everything that happen that night and watched her get up to go inspect her neck in the office's restroom. Neuro bitterly remembered he marked her to offer his protection, some good that did. He watched her read his note and saw her jump at an apparently loud knock on the door. He stared helplessly, as the horror spread across her face when the door was destroyed. Neuro saw her back away in fright and watched the horrible realization crossed her face when she realized she was trapped.

_I don't want to see...I don't want to watch...I...can't look ...away. _He saw the other demon enter the room, obviously pleased with her distress; Neuro grit his teeth, wishing he could enter the room. He growled, a terrible feral sound erupted from his throat when he saw the other demon grab her; his body tensed up wanting desperately to enter the room and rip the demon to shreds before it was too late; he knew he was going to see Yako ripped to pieces any second now.

What he saw next shocked him to his core. Neuro was in a state of disbelief; _He didn't kill her....the demon didn't kill her...the dead body on the floor was an illusion....it wasn't real...she's alive....she is not dead._ Neuro's mind was having trouble grasping that fact, and all he could do was tightly seize the feeling of hope. _I can save her....I'm not too late_. Idly, he watched what remained of the white door disappear and saw another red door appear in the distance. A wicked smirk spread across his face and with quick strides he hurried towards the door. _So the demon wants to play? Fine then, I'll play, but it will pay, _Neuro's eyes flickered with barely suppressed rage. _I guess it's about time I woke up._


	16. Chapter 16

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is the next chap, sorry it took so long, nasty writers block and school finals...ick . Enjoy and thanks for the reviews and favoriting my story, it makes me very happy!

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Krayl's feline ears flattened to the top of his head, he was trying very hard to tune out the noisy, squirming human girl dangling from his mouth from her shirt. He had decided to remain in his natural form after she attempted to escape when she woke up; hoping that his larger form would be more intimidating. Regretfully, her fear of him was gradually fading and he was stuck playing babysitter so she wouldn't run off again. "Hey! ...Hey! ...Let me go! ....Put me down!!" Oh, what he wouldn't give for her to shut up.

Lioth on the other hand, was seriously considering screwing the plan and was rather tempted to kill her right now. A few hours earlier, Lioth dropped her when she first showed signs of regaining consciousness, he didn't want to carry the human and at the time Krayl was scouting ahead. If he knew what a headache dropping her would cause, he would go back in time and made sure she remained unconscious till they reached their destination.

Lioth frowned in irritation,_ Every creature in hell will know of our location with all this racket she is making; _though he was powerful, he didn't want to slaughter the lower denizens of hell who were stupid enough to attempt an attack on the girl and he definitely did not want to protect the human; the killing wouldn't even be entertaining and he needed her alive....for now.

"LET GO!" _THAT DOES IT....._Lioth stopped walking and turned his head to glare at the girl. "Girl, if you don't shut your trap right now every creature within five miles of here will be alerted to your presence," Lioth's glare faded when he saw the missing fear reappear in her eyes and a mocking grin spread across his face, "and you know that if you cause too much trouble... if it comes down to it we will just leave you here....now be a good little human and shut up."

When the girl remained silent, Lioth's mocking smile widened in triumph. _Smart girl._He motioned to Krayl to put her down. After doing that, Krayl shifted into his human form and gave Yako a smirking grin, "Keep close Yako...You don't really want to get lost in hell," chuckling he turned around and began to walk ahead. Lioth saw the girl glance up at him when she realized he wasn't moving. Capturing her gaze, he coldly stared into her eyes, the grin fading off his face, "Don't get any foolish notions of trying to escape again...this time I won't send Krayl to chase after you." His point made, Lioth gestured her to follow and turned around to continue their trek.

Yako sullenly began to trail after the demons, keeping close enough to remain safe, but far enough to keep a respectable distance between. She wanted to spend the least time possible in their company after what she has been put through, but she figured it was safer to stick with them rather than face the unknown horrors of this land that she knew nothing about. _Well besides what Neuro told me to freak me out and I don't even know if what he told me was truth or fiction. _Yako was greatly relieved they hadn't killed her yet. Whatever the reason was, they still needed her alive and she hoped that would prevent her demise long enough so Neuro could rescue her. _Why the hell do they want me anyway, shouldn't they just target Neuro? Why do I have to be brought into this...demon war? Fight? Whatever the hell this is between them....and a better question, what the hell is taking Neuro so long?_

Yako had a feeling Neuro wouldn't be too happy with her if she went up and died without his permission. She grimaced, _No...don't want to deprive him of his trained hardworking slave_. _He would be soooo inconvenienced if he had to train someone from scratch again. I can so picture what my poor replacement will have to go through...well I don't want to pass this fate onto anyone if I can help it. Plus, I really do not want to die this young, thank you very much._

Yako noticed she was falling behind and quickly jogged to catch up; she didn't want to give them the idea that she was trying to sneak off by being slow. _Well they have kept me alive for this long, so as long as I don't do anything stupid._ She hoped by being compliant, they wouldn't have reason to kill her and she would remain that way...for now. _I just need to find an opportunity...surely something will come up and I will make my move then_.

Tired of thinking, Yako now took the time to observe her surroundings. The Hell she always pictured definitely wasn't this._ Way different from what I imagined it to be like. I expected fire and brimstone and heat...terrible heat, rivers of blood, and some poor souls being tortured....or something of nightmares. All I see is boring grey rock; I have to say I'm rather disappointed. If I didn't know any better and didn't see that portal, I would have thought we were just inside a cave on Earth...well a cave that has a red sky. Maybe there is something more to it?_ "Why do you have such a disappointed look on your face? Hell is not what you expected?"

Yako jumped, startled by the voice that came from behind her. Frowning, she looked over her shoulder and came to a halt, Yako had no idea how Krayl got behind her; _I thought he went ahead? Why is he back here with me? _"Yea, it's not quite what I pictured it to be, it's rather boring compared to what I anticipated. Why is everything just grey rock?"

Krayl blinked; _Grey rock? What the hell is she talking about? _A quick check of his surroundings told him there were no grey rocks anywhere. However, the familiar sight of molten geysers and blood red sand greeted his eyes along with the ugly misshapen residents that lived here in this section of Hell....and they were slowly coming closer to the girl who had stopped moving. Krayl sighed in annoyance, they were rather harmless to a demon of his stature but most likely it wouldn't be the same case for a human, "Yako, I would continue walking if I were you."

When he saw her open her mouth to question him, he snapped his fingers to remove the illusion surrounding Yako, revealing the true colors of Hell to her eyes. _I forgot that Lioth put that on her. _Krayl chuckled,_ well least she won't protest orders any longer now that she knows what's surrounding her. _He slowly moved past the girl who was frozen in unmistakable terror and continued walking, Lioth does not like to be kept waiting afterall.

Yako quickly found herself moving again once she got over her shock, keeping very close to Krayl this time around. She did not want to be mauled by the hideous things that were most likely following her_.I'm a 100% sure they are._Well Yako girl, you got what you wished for….a true Hell along with its terrifying demons.


	17. Chapter 17

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. I was very motivated to write, so here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy!

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Yako was exhausted. How long had they been walking? _I think it has been around six hours of walking in this never ending sand pit. Don't these guys realize I'm just human and can't do this without any breaks? _Krayl had forced Yako to walk faster to catch up to Lioth with threats, she didn't know if he would actually go through with them since he was the nicer of the two, but she didn't want to test him to find out, she wasn't so stupid as to believe Krayl was on her side.

_Just put one step in front of the other...just...one_.... Yako fell to her knees, dizzy with exhaustion and tiredly glared at the backs of her captors. She irritably noted that they kept walking and didn't even bother to look back._ Whatever...,_Yako lied down on the red sand and closed her eyes. A nearby screech hardly fazed her; she has been hearing all sorts of weird calls down here in Hell and didn't think too much about it.

Yako's tired muddled mind wasn't as willing to rest as her body was and she knew she was forgetting something important about her situation. _That call sounded triumphant. Why does it give me such a bad feeling? _Answering screeches echoed the first call. _My captors should be far ahead by now. It's so nice to just lie here...What was the reason for staying with them anyway? _

Yako could hear the pitter-pattering of feet inching closer; rolling onto her back she slowly opened her eyes to stare at the red sky. Chirps and screeches sounded around her, growing louder by the minute. _Oh...now I remember. They were indirectly keeping me safe from the other creatures down here. _Yako wryly noted she was too tired to even feel fear at her predicament.

Tilting her head, she observed the things surrounding her and her resting spot. Blinking calmly in the face of certain death, she watched the demons' lick their chops. Ravenous eyes picked her apart like she was just a piece of meat. Humorlessly, she mused that was true according to them_. Hmm... I wonder if it would be better to close my eyes for this next part. _

A quarter of mile away, Lioth and Krayl were lost in conversation and continued on unaware of the situation their bait had placed herself in. "Krayl, I want you to go to the surface again once we reach the Isle. You can have fun playing with Neuro for a bit before I get my turn," Lioth's malicious smile even gave Krayl the shivers. "Alright, but how much longer do you think it will be before we get there? At the rate we are going currently..." Krayl voice faded when he spotted the look in Lioth's eyes. Lioth mulled it over his thoughts and became annoyed with the answer. He was frustrated because at the rate they were going it would take days to reach the Isle.

_Stupid girl...if we didn't need her we would have been there by now._Anger quickening his steps, Lioth moved past Krayl who had stopped walking. Krayl sighed and watched Lioth moved ahead at an even faster pace than before. He knew Lioth was feeling impatient with this whole plan and the girl. With Lioth's temper and bloodlust increasing and Krayl knew it was best to keep his distance from him for now.

The girl was only human, it wasn't possible for her to keep up a fast pace like them, so nothing really could be done._ Human...she is only human,_Krayl's eyes widened in alarm_, I can't believe I didn't realize that this silence from her was odd...how long ago was it when I couldn't hear her at all?_

Glancing back, Krayl noted with dread the girl wasn't there. "Lioth! The girl..." Lioth's red eyes darkened in rage_, the girl....it always has to be the girl that causes the problems....stupid, idiotic human._Growling furiously, Lioth shifted to his natural form-a hell hound. Snarling quietly, he raised his snout and sniffed the air. Locking onto his prey and the girl, he swiftly took off to recover the bait before it got too damaged. Krayl apprehensively watched Lioth storm off, hell hounds always made his fur stand out on end when they were angry;_ with the state he is in right now, I probably should follow. I don't want him to mistakenly kill the girl.  
_

Elsewhere on the sandy plains of Hell, the ground rumbled and cracked. There was an eerie silent pause, before a great explosion of sand, filled the air with dust. A portal whirled to life and shimmered between the planes of Hell and Earth. The lower denizens, who were brave enough to approach the portal, gazed curiously at the blurred figure emerging from it. Their instincts screamed at them to run but before they could move, glowing green eyes froze them in place.

Nervously, they eyed the blur's wicked grin, he was showing too much teeth for them to be comfortable. The figure's evil laughter was the last thing they heard before being struck down. The being's cold spiteful eyes barely gave the broken figures at his feet a second glance as he calmly licked the blood off his hand. Gazing at the familiar landscape and red sky, he chuckled coldly._ It feels good to be home. _

Power was coursing through his body making him feel revitalized. Stretching, he wondered what Yako thought of his home, a smirk formed at his mental image. _Speaking of the girl, I probably should tap into my mark and see how my slave is doing._Neuro knew the demons would keep her safe; after all she was the bait that lured him here and they wouldn't be so idiotic to get rid of her so quickly.

Closing his eyes, he focused in on his mark and was nearly knocked over from the strength of her panicked emotions, the strongest being fear and desperation._ What the..._ Alarmed_,_Neuro delved deeper into her emotions, there was one in that whole jumble that rubbed him the wrong way, trying to place name of it he hastily racked his mind on what he observed of humans and their feelings.

When he could place it, knowing the answer did not make him pleased with Yako's condition. Opening his eyes, he stared unseeingly into the distance._ She has lost hope._ Clenching his hands into fists, his claws dug into his palms causing blood to drip to the red sand._What did those demons do to her!_ Still in tune with Yako's emotions, Neuro immediately felt when she felt pain.

Green eyes flashed to red before turning a green so dark it looked black_. I'll kill them. I'll kill them. I am not in the mood to play with them any longer. They have crossed a line._Neuro's body trembled in poorly suppressed rage. Partly shifting between forms, his human appearance and his true form, he took to the air and flew swiftly towards Yako, the one who he couldn't bear to lose.

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AN: Hmm...I wonder who will get to Yako first, not so sure myself yet.....will it be Krayl and Lioth or will it be lovable Neuro. Look forward to the next chapter and I look forward to your reviews


	18. Chapter 18

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. This chap was hard to write didn't know what I wanted, but here it is finally. Extremely sorry about the long wait. Hope you enjoy!

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Waiting for one's own death was rather nerve-racking and the growls and the snarls of the beings surrounding her didn't make her accept it any easier. Sitting with her knees pressed her chest, Yako tried to make herself as small of a target as possible. For the past few minutes the small demons just stood there staring and for the life of her she wondered why they were not coming closer. _I would of expected to been eaten by now since my demon captors are no longer nearby. What are they waiting for? Not that I'm complaining, but still..._Yako knew she wouldn't wait for them to change their minds, her instincts were screaming at her to run or do something other than being a sitting duck . Cautiously, she slowly stood up, keeping her gaze on the demons for any sudden movement.

She let out a relieved sigh when they didn't do anything other than grin at her...at least she thought it was a grin, she wasn't too sure. _I don't know if I should be too worried about them, they haven't done anything to me yet and all they did was smile. Though I have a feeling I should be very concerned about why those creepy grins appeared on their faces when I stood up, does it mean something? _Yako almost wished the demons would do something other than grin creepily at her; those smiles were starting to freak her out. Regretfully, she got her wish. All it took was one cry from the ring leader of the bunch; Yako noticed it was the largest of the lot; for the demons to suddenly start attacking her.

The flight response immediately kicked in and adrenaline coursed through her body giving her power to struggle and protect vital areas of her body as she tried to get out of the mob alive and in one piece. Yako was soon entirely coated in her own blood, but she didn't stop fighting for her life. Numerous bite wounds and gashes covered her body and she knew she was losing way too much blood to be healthy, but she was almost free of the demons and couldn't give up now. _Not...good....feeling dizzy._

The demons watched the girl put a few good feet between them but they weren't too concerned. The demons were slightly puzzled, they didn't really think that something that weak could have escaped, but the thought quickly vanished because they were not made for thinking in depth and were rather quite stupid. Slowly, they began trailing the stumbling girl, the demons knew she wouldn't get far and all it took was a little patience before they could enjoy fresh meat. Licking their mouths gleefully at the thought, they couldn't wait.

_Must....keep...going,_ no matter how much willpower she had to keep moving, her body couldn't take it anymore and she collapsed from blood loss. Breathing harshly, Yako struggled to keep her eyes open and tried what she could do to keep from passing out. Everything was muddled in her mind and could not make sense of anything, I_....Pain...was...Red is everywhere....Hurt...Attacked....Demons...Abandoned..._ her attention was soon grabbed away from her struggling thoughts by the sand under her bleeding arm. She was fascinated by watching it turn a darker shade of red with her blood. _Red...color...pretty, _as if that thought flipped a switch, Yako could suddenly think with clarity. _I must be pretty bad off if I find the sand turning dark with my blood amazing_. As if watching a movie, Yako could see her life flashing before her eyes. The most prominent image she saw in all her flashes was her demonic boss; _it's pretty funny that my last thoughts of life all deal with Neuro and he could probably care less about me.  
_

An image of what took place in her room appeared in her mind with that last thought (A.N. Neuro's kiss/ marking Yako scene). _Though I do wonder...what was up that kiss? And something must really set him off for him to practically bite my throat off. _The image soon faded to the background when another image took its place, this time showing various scenes of her interactions with Neuro at the office, on cases, and on normal days when he just seems to pop up out of nowhere just to bug her. A weak laugh escaped passed her lips; _I never fully realized what a big part of my life you were, Neuro._ Yako turned her body enough to be able to look at the demons; they were coming after her, they had no reason to leave her alone. The effort it took to move left her panting heavily. Baffled, she noticed the demons were not coming closer to her prone body, _are they backing away from me? _Completely bewildered, she wondered why. It wouldn't take much to kill her now, _so why on earth are they leaving?  
_

The demons knew they had to get away from this area quickly. Yako was unaware that the small demons were alarmed by the three powerful demons rapidly approaching their location. With the rage one of them was letting off, the weaker demons knew if they stuck around any longer they would be massacred.

Neuro's POV of sort

The scent of blood was repulsive and with the amount he smelled in the air, he hoped that he was not too late. Neuro felt that his rage was only held in check by a thin thread of reason and that thread was stretching thinner by the second as he got closer to the source of all the blood. Paying no heed to his straining muscles, he flew faster than he had ever before. There was an almost audible snap when he finally arrived at the scene and rage filled him to the brim. The thread that was maintaining his sanity was finally shredded beyond repair as his eyes took in the sight that greeted him. Yako's life blood was drenching the red sand and her broken form lay a few feet away from the culprits, who were quickly running away. _HOW DARE THEY INJURE WHAT IS MINE_. Landing with a crash, sand billowed around him as his demonic power went out of control. Neuro was too far gone to realize that Yako's kidnappers were quickly coming upon the scene. He could only see red.

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AN: Only a few more chapters to go till it reaches its conclusion, hoped you have enjoyed my story so far. Love the reviews, they make me happy.


	19. Chapter 19

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. To make it up to you guys for making you wait so long last time, I pumped out the next chapter quickly this time. Hope you enjoy it!

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_This was not going according to plan_, Lioth thought, vastly irritated with the mess that greeted him. On a red sand dune overlooking the bloodbath down below, Lioth and Krayl stopped, deciding this was a good distance as any from the insane demon wreaking havoc. Lioth had long since calmed down from his initial anger as he went racing back to retrieve the bait, hopefully alive, but this....this made him irritated for a completely different reason. The hell-hound watched as Neuro proceeded to slaughter the weak demons, taking his time to drag it out. It disgusted him.

_Look how far you have fallen, Neuro._ _This is such a pathetic site, are you that attached to the girl? _Lioth knew Neuro was clearly behaving irrationally and he also knew that he would feel completely unsatisfied if he went down there right now for his revenge. _What to do now...._Bored watching Neuro mindless actions, Lioth scanned the landscape for something better to focus his attention on and lo to his surprise he spotted some movement coming from the girl.

_Hmm...well well well....isn't that something....the girl is still alive. The bait is still useful apparently. _A pleased growl emerged from his throat; it looks like he doesn't have to abandon the plan quite yet. Lioth slowly began walking down the dune after shifting back to his human form; he figured it wouldn't be good to attract Neuro's attention just yet.

Krayl was surprised by the growl coming from his boss's throat. This caused him to unconsciously shift his attention from Neuro's bloodbath to the hell-hound beside him. _He looks pleased about something; his red eyes are practically sparkling. Oh? It looks like he is heading down there. I wonder why? _

Trying to see what pleased him so much; Krayl searched the surrounding area but finding nothing that would cause such a happy reaction, he ended up following Lioth's path with his eyes. When it be became obvious he was heading towards the girl, he switched his sight to the girl to see what interested Lioth so much and was surprised to see her moving. _So she is still alive, eh? I feel almost sorry for her now with the state she is in; Lioth must have realized that we could still use her. _

Observing Neuro once more, Krayl noted his rampage was slowly coming to an end. _Lioth better grab the girl quickly otherwise it looks like we will have to fight unprepared, and with how Neuro is looking right now, I don't really want to fight an enraged demon, Lioth can if he wants but as for me no thanks. _Krayl sighed heavily; this whole thing for Lioth's revenge was starting to rub his fur the wrong way, while the plan was fun, and quite amusing in the beginning....it was starting to feel wrong.

_I'm just as sadistic and cruel as the next demon but...I don't know....there is just something wrong with messing with someone's chosen mate to this extent. Though I do understand why Lioth is doing this and how he must defeat those who belong on the Demon Court to get revenge on them for killing his family. There are always two sides to a situation but it's a pity the girl had to be dragged into this, I kinda like her. On a side note, it's pretty funny that the girl isn't aware of Neuro's intentions towards her. Too bad I..._The sound of vicious snarling interrupted Krayl's musings; _well it looks like Neuro finally took notice of Lioth. _

An answering snarl sounded in reply. Observing the two demons in the distance, Krayl guessed the battle between them would start soon_....oh maybe not yet, Lioth has the girl in his grasp._Krayl chuckled before turning around and walking away in the other direction, _I've paid my debt to Lioth by now, and nothing says I have to stick around any longer. I wish you the best of luck, boss. Though I have to wonder, what is going through the girl's mind through all this?_

Yako's Pov

Yako was not happy to put it lightly, with the new situation she found herself in and kept thinking (_why me?_) over and over again. Let's backtrack now.

Moments ago she was almost perfectly content to bleed to death in the sand, while her thoughts were filled with memories of the past. She was also perfectly content to ignore the screams and the mushy wet sounds as something larger and obviously more powerful kill her little tormentors as she continued to slowly bleed to death.

Earlier, when the more powerful demon landed nearby, Yako thought it was coming over to enjoy the free meal the little demons practically left for it, but nope, for some reason it went for her tormentors, not that she was complaining, being eaten alive sounded more painful, it was just strange that it left her alone, but back to the situation she was in.

When she first heard footsteps coming towards her, she thought she was hearing things since it was quite hard to hear anything else, but the death screams nearby. With a lot of effort on her part, she was able to lift her head momentarily to look where the sound was coming from, and groaned when she saw who it was. _Why did he come back for me? He could of just let me die here happily....well maybe not happily, that must be the blood loss talking....I have a feeling he is not going to let me die so easily, what makes me think that you ask? It's that grin on his face, which makes it pretty obvious. _

Helplessly, Yako watched Lioth come towards her and she noted he seemed pretty distracted by what was going on nearby, _I wonder why? It can't be that interesting, he probably sees it all the time. _When Lioth grabbed her and picked her up, roughly placing her over his shoulder as he maintained a grip on her legs so she wouldn't fall off, Yako couldn't help but let out a pained whimper, _ouch that hurts; gentle much? I think not. _Yako noticed it got oddly silent after that, _I wonder if that other demon is gone? _

Feeling Lioth tense up, Yako had a high suspicion things were going to get ugly between Lioth and the mystery demon, who apparently was not gone. The mystery demon's vicious snarl broke the tense silence that seemed to have settled over the area, intensifying the bad feeling Yako had.

_This is probably bad._When Lioth answered back with his own snarl, probably unaware of his tightening grip on her, a pained whimper escaped her tightly pressed lips as she tried not to scream from the pain Lioth was unintentionally causing her. The other demon let out another vicious growl, causing her to shudder in terror. _That other demon sounds so terrifying_. Yako knew she was in trouble, it not longer was a "probably bad" situation that she found herself in, but rather a situation that she would have to place into the category of extremely bad. _WHY ME?_

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AN: Yako gets to see who the 'mystery demon' is next chap. Love the reviews, they make me happy.


	20. Chapter 20

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Longer chapter than usual, had fun writing this. Hope you enjoy it!

_italics- are inner thoughts_ (either Neuro or Lioth-I think it will be clear who thoughts are whose)

**_Bold italics-Are Yako's thoughts for this chapter_**

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Neuro's POV a few minutes before....

_Kill. _Claws ripped through flesh. _Kill. _Neuro chased the demons down, lost in a red haze as his rage overwhelmed him. He could only be satisfied if he killed all of them with his very own claws. _Kill those who hurt her... _Finally having enough of prolonging their torture, he killed the rest of the demons with a powerful blast of demonic energy.

To his anger, he discovered he missed one of the demons. Growling, he prepared to leap the distance separating him from his prey when a noise caused him to pause. (*whimper*) Slowly, he glanced over his shoulder, completely forgetting about his fleeing target. Briefly the red haze clouding his mind cleared somewhat, allowing him to formulate two thoughts before his reasoning ability was lost again.

_Alive...She is alive, but badly injured. Demon is trying to take her, he is hurting hurt. _Snarling at the demon for hurting her, Neuro quickly closed the distance between them, stopping a few feet away as he tried to give himself time to restrain his rage, he knew he couldn't risk lashing out at the other demon while Yako was still in his grasp. Gritting his teeth, he tried to calm his raging emotions; the responding snarl the demon let out was enough to inform Neuro that he was in a very sensitive position.

Where we left off last chapter...

As the snarl faded from his lips, Lioth smirked knowingly, "Neuro or rather High Councilor of the Demon Court, how does it feel to be powerless?"

Yako blinked through her pain as she hung over Lioth's shoulder; **_Did he just say Neuro? _**

Green eyes narrowed at the title and took a moment to examine the other demon as he tried to place him in his memory.

Lioth's grin widened, "I'm so sad you don't remember me."

Neuro growled, "Don't mock me, Dog."

**_That can't be Neuro, he doesn't sound this...demonic_**.

Lioth's grin fell off his face and a solemn look took its place," Yes, I have to agree. Nothing is funny about this...situation we are in."

Neuro shot the demon a spiteful look, "What do you want?"

Lioth dryly chuckled, "Want?" He repositioned Yako so he was now holding her with one of his arms.

The move was rather painful for Yako and she couldn't help but let out a hiss of pain. A soft growl from the other demon drew her eyes to him and she was surprise to see that Lioth was actually telling the truth. It was Neuro.

**_Is that really Neuro? He's covered in so much blood...and I have never seen him look this...angry?_**

From her new position, Yako's sight never left Neuro as she continued to stare at him in disbelief, he was really here.

**_Then was that him killing those demons? _**

Yako paled in remembrance of the death and tortured cries her tormentors emitted as they were cut down. Catching his eyes, Yako was surprised to see the amount of emotion swirling in their depths before they hardened, showing nothing.

A clawed hand danced across her throat, giving her goose-bumps.

**_Neuro, I'll do whatever you say. I won't complain ever again...I'll be your slave for the rest of my life, so please help me, _**Yako's eyes never left Neuro's, pleading him to do something.

Lioth slowly dragged his hand over Yako's throat again, "What I want, you won't easily give me."

Neuro disliked that clawed hand so close her throat and made his displeasure readily known, as he spiked his aura with malice.

"Tsk, Tsk, no need to get so tense. I'm not going to do anything to her...yet," Lioth's grin was positively wicked.

Neuro held back a growl; he didn't want the other demon to know how truly valuable the girl was, more so than he already let on to the other demon. Neuro closed his eyes, _Maintain a calm facade, don't show the enemy the truth...pretend I don't care......this would be much easier if Yako would stop looking at me like that. _

Opening his eyes, he stared stoically into the demon's red eyes, "Oh? Well then if you won't tell me what you want..." a feral grin spread across his face, "I'll take my slave back, she requires a lot of looking after, you see, and I'm sure you don't want to bother yourself with such an idiotic human."

**_Oh? I'm an idiotic human this time? It seems I've evolved quite a few stages from a bug. Even though I've been with him for these past two years...I've never really seen him look feral....Neuro almost scares me..._**Yako noticed her vision was getting awfully blurry**_, I feel tired....this isn't good....I've lost so much blood._**

Lioth snorted disdainfully, "Please, High Councilor Neuro, do you think I'm blind and stupid? I know how _precious,_" Lioth sneered, "the girl is to you. Do you think I went this far without any plan? I will get my revenge on the Demon Court for giving out orders to kill my family," a cold mischievous glint flashed through his eyes, "and do you want to know what I found out?"

Neuro was barely able to contain his growl; he asked gruffly, "What?"

Yako struggled to keep her eyes open and on Neuro, but the blood loss was finally catching up to her. Her last fading thoughts were on what Lioth said, **_precious? What...does that mean? _**As she drifted unconscious, Yako felt slightly worried, for what she saw in Neuro's green eyes was something that closely resembled panic, **_but that couldn't be right_**, she thought and knew no more.

Neuro did indeed feel slight panic when he glanced at Yako and saw she was frighteningly pale color. He was beyond frustrated, he could only watch and do nothing as Yako lost consciousness; a good reminder that she was just human and could not last without medical care. He was clearly running out of time and it was getting harder and harder to keep a leash on his darker emotions.

Lioth glanced at the limp girl he was holding and humorlessly began to laugh, "Oh dear. It looks while we were having fun talking the poor girl fell unconscious," he moved Yako to his other arm and looked at the blood covering his side with poorly hidden disgust, "and look at all this blood, such a mess."

Neuro forced himself to look at the ground and not at the sight in front of him, the surrounding air crackled ominously. Blood dripped down from his hands as his claws dug into flesh. _Ask....Ask him before you lose it, _Neuro struggled to continue the conversation, trying to formulate words, preventing his primitive side from escaping its mental prison, "Put....the girl down."

Lioth raised an amused eyebrow at Neuro's head-bowed form, "I don't think you are in a position to ask me anything, High Councilor."

Neuro snarled and raised his head from its bowed position to glare furiously at the demon. His eyes flickered between green and black, "Put...the girl down, Lioth!"

"Oh? Do you finally remember me, High Councilor?" Lioth smiled with false happiness, "Do you also remember how it was _your vote_," he emphasized, resentment flowing off every word, "that _condemned_ my family."

Neuro growled, "Pup, you are crossing a line for seeking revenge for something that happened eons ago."

Lioth snickered, "Eons ago? That's Funny, Neuro. You have obviously spent too much time on Earth if you think time really matters for a demon's revenge. However, I shall humor you, High Councilor," Lioth coldly glared at Neuro, "You want the girl away from me and I just want to get rid of her, since she is clearly a distraction to you, I'll...," he summoned one of his demon tools, it looked similar to a typical baseball cap found on Earth; placing it on Yako's head, he idly watched Neuro's reaction as she began to disappear, "send her somewhere else."

Neuro stared blankly at Lioth's empty arms. "I wonder how long she'll last with the state she is in. I don't know where she will be sent either," Lioth chuckled, _that was a lie, but Neuro probably can't tell with how close he is to snapping,_ "I'm sure you can imagine all the interesting places in Hell she could have been sent to..."

Neuro lunged at Lioth, claws fully extended; snarling when he missed the other demon as Lioth leaped backwards to dodge.

"So impatient in your old age, High Councilor," Lioth quickly dodged a furious swipe. He grimaced, that was too close.

Neuro mercilessly pressed his attack, so lost within his hatred for the other demon; he didn't realize his attacks never reached, as Lioth kept dodging to keep out his range.

After a few minutes, of constant dodging and attacking, it began pretty obvious to Lioth that this was getting him nowhere. _He really doesn't give me a chance to counterattack when he is mindlessly attacking like this, _Lioth scanned for any openings as he dodged once again, _this give me an idea..._

Summoning one of his demon tools; this time it was a large spear, he twirled it as he dodged once more, "Hey, Neuro..." Lioth taunted, "Do you think your girl dead yet?"

Neuro charged Lioth, the question not even registering in his mind, fully falling into the trap Lioth set.

Lioth stayed where he was and faced Neuro's charge head on, smirking cruelly; he hefted up his spear and with a burst of speed, met Neuro halfway.

Lioth laughed triumphantly, red eyes gazing into dazed black; _you made this too easy Neuro_.

Neuro's eyes faded back to green as the pain registered, blood quickly filled his throat. He coughed, spitting up blood, the rest trickling from the corner of his mouth. Glancing down, he noticed Lioth's spear impaling him.

Raising his gaze to the Lioth's, a wry smirk crossed his lips, '_Too bad, dog....if this is all you can come up with for your petty revenge...Do you think to kill me with just this?...You are too young and weak..Did you think I didn't catch your lie? That was one of your many mistakes, the first mistake, to use Yako for such a stupid reason, _Neuro chuckled at Lioth's surprised expression, "You fool," Neuro knocked Lioth back with a blast of power, forcing him to let go of the spear.

Wiping the blood from his mouth, Neuro set about removing the spear from his gut, ignoring the gush of blood that followed after its removal. Focusing his aura on the wound, he quickly closed it; '_this is what I've missed...All this power. You stupid dog, you should have not brought me to my ideal playing field, you may have stood a chance on Earth, but in Hell..._ his eyes glared daggers at the stunned demon, a cruel smile twisted his lips, _'I'll crush you and make you tell me where you sent Yako_.'

Picking up the spear, Neuro twirled it carelessly in one hand, "Do you think I'm so weak that, all it will take to kill me is a spear through the gut? My, my, you are more foolish that I thought..." Neuro hurtled the spear toward the demon.

Lioth was barely able to dodge the spear; it glanced off his arm when he didn't move quickly enough. Lioth growled in annoyance as blood seeped from the rather deep gash.

"Hurt by your own weapon, what on earth are they teaching young demons these days," Neuro taunted heartlessly.

"Shut up, High Councilor...I'll make you pay for killing my family, if it's the last thing I do," Lioth roared in anger.

Neuro sighed in mock pity, "Such an old tale your spouting," with a flick of his wrist he summoned a large spiked collar with a heavy chain attached, "It's time to put the bad doggie back on its leash," laughing coldly at Lioth's indignant expression, Neuro swung the chain, the collar looming overhead like a lasso.

With a bored yawn, he released the chain from the collar causing it to shoot toward Lioth like a cannon.

Red eyes widened in alarm, before the narrowed determinedly. Lioth raised his all of his demonic power to form a shield, the spilt second before the collar careened into him. He panted from the effort to keep the deadly spiked collar away from his body; his shield wavered, warning him that he couldn't keep this up for long.

Neuro slowly walked towards the struggling demon, "I think you want to tell me something don't you? Something along the lines of: where _exactly _did you sent my property? It would be in your best interest to tell me quickly," Neuro tapped Lioth's shield softly causing it to waver dangerously, the collar whirled closer to his body, a spike barely grazing him before his shield solidified once more," As you can see I'm not in the mood to play games with you, dog."

Lioth sweated slightly at the coldblooded look Neuro gave him. _The girl is important to him....as long I don't tell him where she is; I'll still have the advantage ... _but, Lioth was becoming exhausted, _I can't...keep this form..._ His body began to shift without his consent, the hell-hound started panting heavily.

"Look at you now, you can't even keep your humanoid form," Neuro observed. "Tell me where the girl is," he stopped the spinning collar with a finger, lazily he grabbed it and hooped it over his arm, "If you tell me now," he crushed the remains of what was left of Lioth's shield, "I'll make your death less painful."

Lioth growled out words, but they were completely unintelligible to Neuro.

Neuro scowled in annoyance, "Say that again, I don't speak dog."

Lioth snapped his jaws above Neuro's head and rumbled, "I said I'm not going to tell you. The girl is probably dead anyway."

Neuro's eyes flickered to black and the next thing Lioth knew; he had his muzzle captured by one of Neuro's hands, enlarged enough to fully wrap around it.

Tightening his grip on the hound's muzzle, he dragged down the dog's head to his eyelevel, "For your sake, she better not be dead."

Burning red eyes stared into icy green, '_Shit...I thought using the girl would make him weak. On earth he didn't seem this powerful,'_ his eyes widened in realization, _'Is the difference between our strengths this vast in hell?' _

Lioth winced when the grip on his muzzle tightened painfully.

"I'm really sorry to interrupt your internal musings," Neuro grinned sarcastically, "seeing how just realized one of your mistakes, but I'm on a rather tight time schedule you see and..." he unhooked the collar from his free arm and used some of his power to make it float, "I'd like you to tell me _now_," Neuro pulled Lioth's head closer to the floating collar, gleefully ignoring the dog's pained whines, "where did you send her?"

Neuro pulled Lioth's head through the collar, letting go of his rather damaged muzzle, and contently began watching as the collar slowly constricted around Lioth's throat.

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AN: Love the reviews.


	21. Chapter 21

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Had part of this chapter written already, so it was easy to finish rather quickly. Hope you enjoy it!

_italics- are inner thoughts._

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Lioth scratched frantically at his neck with his paws, trying to remove the shrinking collar, but the spikes on the collar did more damage to his paws than he did to the collar. Wheezing, Lioth found he couldn't breathe and his vision was darkening; the collar was killing him slowly.

Desperately with his last breath he hissed, "Partner...I sent her to the cat," as Lioth passed out, he didn't see Neuro loosen the collar with a wave of his hand.

Neuro disdainfully stared down at the unconscious demon, fetching the chain; he hooked it to the collar, and with dry amusement watched as the hell-hound shrank down to puppy size._ If she is not alive when I find her...I'll destroy you slowly and painfully, Pup._

With the cat....

Krayl was perfectly content to laze away the rest of the day; _it's so good to be home. _Currently, he was in Hell's forest lounging on one of the trees in his natural form. (If one had to compare the forest to something, just imagine it would be like something you'd picture in a horror film, very creepy.)

After leaving Lioth, Krayl quickly went to go about his own business; first stopping at a demon town that was on the border of the red sand and the black grassland, he wanted to find out what was going on in Hell while he has been gone. Finding nothing of interest, he went home to his forest and chased out the uninvited inhabitants that moved in while was gone.

Now there he was, just dozing on his tree, and it wasn't long till he received an unwelcome surprise.

Ears twitching at the unexpected noise of a portal opening, Krayl cracked open eyes, _what's this? _Blinking in surprise, he watched the portal a few feet away drop a familiar figure.

_Shit..._Leaping off his branch, Krayl quickly caught the unconscious girl by her clothes before she fell to her death. Shifting back to his humanoid form, Krayl swore as he took a good look at the girl, it looked like she was having difficulty breathing.

_She is not looking too good...how the hell did she get..._Krayl spotted the hat on her head and hissed, _Lioth, you stupid..._Swiping the cap off her head, Krayl tossed it to the ground, Yako's breathing came a little easier, _you do not use a demon tool on a human, you idiotic dog. With the state she is in especially, you could have killed her. _Krayl eyes widened horror, _why you good for nothing...Why on earth did you send her to me! You just signed my death warrant,_Krayl knew Lioth was no match for Neuro, and he could imagine the battle between them would be over quickly, too quickly for his likes now.

_Shit, this is not good. I need to do something, _Glancing down at the girl in arms, he sweated slightly, _if she is dead when Neuro finds me....not good. _Krayl began pacing, _what can I do...what can I do, _he glanced down at the girl again; _crap...she going into shock, I need to do something now. _Krayl grimaced as the solution came to him, _If Neuro wasn't going to kill me before, he definitely will now._

Taking a quick look at her neck, he spotted Neuro's mark, it seemed to glare at him as if it knew what he was about to do. Sucking in a deep breath, Krayl lowered his head to the opposite side of Yako's neck, and began to lick a spot gently. Closing his eyes with regret, he bit down, teeth sinking into her flesh. Yako's scream echoed through the entire forest.

In the unconscious realm...

Yako was walking in darkness, she didn't know how she got here but she really didn't care, it was a comforting darkness. She kept walking even if it really didn't seem like she was going anywhere, she figure it would be best to do something rather than just sit there.

So when she saw the light she was quite surprised, _I wonder what's over there. _As she started to head toward the light, the darkness surrounding her wasn't so comforting anymore. Yako shivered and began to walk quicker.

The air felt heavier and suddenly turned suffocating. _I can't breathe...,_ not wanting to suffocate, she began running to escape. As she got closer to the light, the air seemed to lighten once more.

Glancing back, she noticed that the darkness seemed to be sulking for some reason, _as if it could sulk, this is such a weird place_, raising an eyebrow in disbelief, she turned towards the light once more, but found she couldn't move.

_What? _Looking down at her legs she spotted a shadowy hand grabbing one of them, was it preventing her from moving toward the light? Blinking curiously, she kneeled down to look at it closely and poked it with her finger. It twitched and moved down her leg, now it was gripping her ankle.

Looking back at the light, it seemed to be calling her. Frowning, she looked at the hand preventing her from going to it._ Well, Mr. Shadowy hand, I'm very sorry, but you are going to have to let me go now, _she grabbed the hand by its wrist and yanked it away from her ankle, it was surprisingly weak. The hand tried to grab onto her hand, but she quickly tossed it away from her before it could.

Standing up, she began walking towards the light once more, but was stopped abruptly when more shadowy hands grabbed her. _Well, this is annoying, it brought friends. _Yako winced as the hands tightened their grip, _why are they trying to stop me from going? I don't see what the big deal is, plus the light looks like a happy place._

As if the hands knew what she was thinking, they began to pull her backwards into the darkness. Yako struggled against the hands but found her efforts quite useless. It was then when the mind-blowing pain hit her. _What? Why am I in so much pain? Everything hurts. _Tears of pain flowed out of her eyes and trickled down her cheeks.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to prevent herself from screaming, but the pain was too much. Through her tears the light seemed to beckon her to go to it, she wanted to cry out that she wanted to, but only screams of pain escaped her lips when she opened her mouth. Collapsing to the ground when the pain became too much for her to stand, she curled up into a fetal position. Lost within her own pain, she didn't notice the hands were trying to drag her back into the darkness, that was once again warm and comforting.

Krayl's POV...

Krayl held the girl's thrashing screaming body still with ease; he was using his aura to heal the girl's wounds through the mark he was placing on her neck. He found out, it was rather painful for a human to take a demon's aura into one's body, if her screams were anything to go by, but to his relief it was working rather well and her wounds were healing.

As for him, he had a monstrous headache and his ears were ringing from all the screaming she was letting off, _Thank god, this is almost over. I don't think I can stand this screaming much longer._

When her wounds finally healed and her blood level was no longer so critically low, he stopped feeding his aura through the mark on her neck. Krayl raised his head from her neck and sighed with relief when the screaming finally stopped; _I wonder who heard the screaming, my guess practically everyone in Hell. _

Carefully, he examined her and found her to be in a restful pain free sleep. As she turned her head in her sleep, to get comfortable was his guess; he spotted his mark that was now on her neck and groaned miserably at the sight, _I'm so dead._

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AN: Thank you and love the reviews.


	22. Chapter 22

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is this chapter, Hope you enjoy it!

_italics- are inner thoughts._

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Not wanting to look at the mark any longer Krayl turned his eyes elsewhere and stared blankly into the distance._ I can already see how this is going to go...Neuro gets the answer of that stupid dog, he will find me and the girl, seeing how I kept the girl is alive he'll probably give me five minutes to enjoy my life, then he will kill me and enjoy it...greatly, seeing how I placed a mark his girl. _

Feline golden eyes narrowed in anger, _well isn't this just swell. I practically raised the orphan pup and this is how he repays me, _he hissed in annoyance, _I even went along with his rather stupid revenge plot, and allowed the arrogant dog to order me around. _Krayl huffed outraged how this was the way his generosity was paid back, numerous thoughts began to stream through his mind;_ Seeing how this whole mess was my fault, I was the one who brought the Hell-Hound issue to Demon's Court attention eons ago; I weakened those on the Court, the pup was unaware of course ... I felt guilty and set everything up so the pup could kill them. I guess it was a mistake to let his ego grow too big. It also was a mistake for telling him one of the members was one Earth._

Krayl tiredly sighed, _I guess I didn't realize Lioth would break demon etiquette and go to this extreme....you just don't mess with a demon's chosen mate, I guess I skipped that in my lessons. _He began to laugh out loud, this was a terrible predicament he found himself in, _Oh, and can't forget this... since I marked her, my inner demon won't be willing to give her up. _He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated how messed up this turned out to be.

_That's enough thinking about it_. Krayl noticed Hell's three suns were setting now, sighing regretfully at the site, he was sure this was going to be his last night. Grabbing the sleeping girl, he leaped up into the tree in was resting in earlier. Making sure he was seated comfortable, Krayl gently placed the girl in his lap and wrapped his arms around her to keep her warm, kindly ignoring the dried blood on her. Hell was rather chilly when night fell. _I'm sorry, Yako. I'm sorry, for getting you involved in this._

Elsewhere...

The shrunken hell-hound sullenly trailed after Neuro as they trekked across hell, the chain and the collar forcing him to follow as they went to go find his partner or rather his foster parent, Neuro not knowing that last tidbit of information.

A few hours earlier (roughly before and about the time when Krayl marks Yako)...

Lioth was surprised when he regained consciousness, extremely surprised would be more like it, he didn't expect to wake up at all. Though, after he got over the fact that he was alive, he wasn't very pleased with his new bodily state. He so was tiny compare to his old size. Also the fact that he was being carried by the demon that did this to him, added more insult to injury. Lioth growled and to his humiliation, it wasn't very menacing at all.

Hearing the growling, Neuro grinned in sadistic pleasure, _it seems the puppy is awake now._ Tossing the dog into the air, Neuro received some satisfaction by hearing its pathetic yelp. Grabbing the pup by the scruff neck before it hit the ground; he held the dog in front of his face and stared into its eyes, showing the pup, the bloodlust that was just lying under the surface of his eyes. He was holding back the urge to kill the pathetic thing because he knew he still needed answers from it. _Frightened, that's good. Seems I don't really have to do much to put it back into its place._

Lioth thought he was going to have a heart attack when he was suddenly tossed up into the air, as he came back down he had no real expectation to be caught. However, when he was caught, no matter halfheartedly it was; Lioth guessed he was being kept alive for some... reason? Staring into Neuro's eyes however, made him realize he wasn't going to live for very long. Blood thirsty green eyes ruthlessly picked him apart. Body shaking uncontrollably, Lioth let out an unintentional frightened whimper.

Shaking his head in digust, Neuro dropped the dog to the ground. Summoning the chain, Neuro hooked it to the collar, and tugged it as he walked ahead, "Follow, dog." Lioth huffed at the command, but reluctantly did what he was told; he figured it would be best to be on good behavior to prolong his life as long as possible.

Moving at a quick pace, they crossed the border between the red sand and the black grassland. Neuro, having no need to visit the nearby town, ignored it and continued to follow his mark's pull. He was mildly concerned how its pull seemed weaker than before.

His thoughts for possibly why that would be didn't make him too pleased with his speculations and decided he wouldn't think too much about it. Neuro knew that Yako wasn't in danger at the moment and that was enough for him. Though he did reluctantly admit to himself, he would feel better if Yako was with him, _after this she is not leaving my sight. _Imagining Yako's expression when he told her this new rule of his had him smirking in amusement.

However, what happened next fully destroyed Neuro's calm mood. The constant instinctive pull towards his mark abruptly seemed to go haywire. _What on ..._ Focusing his mind on Yako and her presence, Neuro could sense she was in pain, a great lot of pain.

Lioth eyed Neuro's back warily when he suddenly began growling. Coming to a stop, Lioth stayed as far away as the leash allowed him to, not wanting to get closer to the angry demon. _What's got him all riled up?_

"Dog," Neuro growled, "Do you have anything of your partner's belongings?"

Lioth cocked his head in confusion, "Belongings?"

Eyes flashing with irritation, Neuro turned around and faced the shrunken hound, "Yes, belongings. Things he possibly gave you. Pup, I'm not in the mood for stupidity, so did he give you anything or not?"

Lioth shook his head in a rapid 'yes' motion, Neuro had tightened the collar in his irritation, to the point where he could no longer speak. After it was loosened, Lioth's sigh of relief was cut short, as he was suddenly picked up by the collar and forced to stare into Neuro's eyes.

"What did he give you?"

_I'm quite tired of all this just kill me already_, stoically he replied, "A tool."

From his position, he could see the suns slowly setting behind Neuro; Lioth had never noticed what a beautiful scene it actually was, _such a shame that I realize it too late; revenge is such an empty feeling. Krayl did warn me, too bad I never truly listen to what he had to teach me. _

"Summon it," Neuro ordered, feeling impatient. He could no longer feel anything from Yako through his mark and that had him unnerved.

Lioth growled annoyed, "Remove the collar then."

Neuro frowned and removed the collar with a snap of his fingers, still holding the shrunken dog, this time by the scruff of the neck.

Not really pleased to see he was still tiny even with the collar's removal, he wondered what the hell Neuro did to him, "Put me down on the ground." Lioth fell to the ground with a thump, _I didn't ask to be dropped, geez_.

Shaking off the slight pain, Lioth began to summon the tool Krayl gave him a long time ago, a Hell's navigator (think demonic gps unit). The requested tool fell to the ground since he couldn't catch it with his current form and was rather annoyed to see it was not affected by his size change, it was still big. _Well, so much for the fact that this tool is supposed to match your body size,_ Lioth laid down to rest and put his head on his paws.

Upon seeing the tool, Neuro was back to being somewhat more collected. _Well, doesn't this make things easier,_ Picking up the tool, Neuro could sense the two auras of its owners. Setting the navigator to track the cat's aura, he watched a dot light up in Hell's forest on the map it provided.

Neuro was irritated to see that the cat was practically on the other side of Hell; even he flew or ran, it would still take an hour. Neuro froze when he suddenly felt panic that was not his own. He could feel Yako through his mark again, whatever was affecting it before seemed to have faded, but it still had him grabbing Lioth and taking off into the air. He was not going to get there in an hour; no he was going to try and get there in thirty minutes if he had anything to say about it.

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AN: Thank you and love the reviews.


	23. Chapter 23

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. Here is this chapter, my longest one so far, Hope you enjoy it!

_italics- are inner thoughts._

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Yako shivered, it was cold. Feeling a warm source nearby, she snuggled into it. _Wait a minute, something is not right here_. Cracking her eyes open, she noticed her vision was fuzzy, and was slightly confused as to why she was seeing two moons. _Am I seeing double? _

Blinking to clear her vision, she noticed three things: the first thing, she was indeed seeing two moons, the second thing; she was extremely high up in what seemed to be a tree and the third thing; she was lying in somebody's lap. While being this high up was alarming, she was more concerned about whom she was lying on. Glancing, where she guessed the person's face would be; she was slightly spooked to see two glowing nonhuman eyes staring back at her. Once her eyes adapted to the darkness, she was very alarmed to see that the eyes belonged to one of her demon kidnappers.

Krayl was lightly dozing when he felt movement from the girl. _Hmm, it looks like she is going to wake up soon...this is not going to be pretty. _He was amused by her slow reactions and wondered when she was going to notice him. Brown frightened eyes stared into his and he grimaced at the waves of panic he could feel from his mark,_ if I can feel this much without tapping into it, I bet Neuro can feel this too...Not good. _

"Yako, I need you to calm down," Krayl pleaded with the girl, trying to make his presence less threatening as possible, he removed his arms from her body, and hoped that she would not try and do anything drastic. He didn't want her to end up falling.

Yako did not like this at all, but she felt slightly better when the arms holding her retreated, giving her space, well as much space possible one could give while she sat in that person's lap and leaned as far away as possible from him. However, her brain cruelly reminded her, that this demon was the only thing preventing her from falling.

Nervously, she glanced down and saw it was a rather long way down to the ground. This made her think it would be extremely wise not to move anymore. Frozen in fear, she wondered how she would get out this predicament.

Bringing her gaze away from the ground, she hesitantly brought her eyes to Krayl's, and to her surprised saw that he was distressed about something, _What did he say just a minute ago? Oh yeah it was something about calming down._ Yako couldn't help but frown in anger, _why the hell should I? I was kidnapped from Earth and became a toy for you guys. Lioth was not very gentle and I suffered through some physical abuse while you had fun messing with my mind. You guys forced me to walk across the sands of hell and then you left me in the dust causing me to be attacked by the demons following me._

Her anger revived her courage and she angrily asked, "Why should I listen to you?"

Krayl winced at the angry question, _well, she does have a point, and I didn't give a reason for as why she should calm down and right now she does have every right to be angry._ When he didn't say anything, Yako continued to question him, "How did I get here anyway?"

Opening his mouth to speak, he was interrupted before he could even answer her last question. "The last thing I remember...," Yako's eyes widened in remembrance, "Neuro!" _That's right, they were using me as bait to get Neuro to here, but I never expected he would come for me. _Yako felt dread, they probably didn't have any need for her anymore and would kill her now, and Neuro would be stuck to fight these two demons. (A.N. Too bad, Yako didn't realize in Hell, Neuro would grossly overpower them, and her concern was misplaced.)

Krayl tiredly sighed; _she was feeling fear again... great, _"Yes, yes, Neuro is here. Well not here exactly here, at this place right now, but he will be soon," Krayl made pacifying motions with his hands, "but I beg you, please be at ease. Don't feel so panicked, I'm not going to do anything to you after all the trouble I went through to heal you," _especially since I'm practically a dead walking cat because of it, _Krayl closed his eyes at the dismal thought.

_That's right I should be in pain right now._ Looking herself over, she was surprised to find that under all her dried blood, there wasn't a wound to be found. Examining the demon that had just closed his eyes, she reviewed these past few moments within her mind, she realized he wasn't behaving like he did earlier and seemed completely different. _He had this mischievous and playful attitude about him....now he just seems regretful and sad? What brought on this change?_

Krayl opened his eyes to see two brown eyes looking at him curiously, raising an eyebrow at her, he calmly asked, "Would it be alright if I brought us down from this tree? ...when you are done staring at me, of course."

Yako lightly blushed and nodded hesitantly in respond to his request.

After receiving her approval, Krayl quickly scooped her up as he stood. Maintaining a firm grip on her, Krayl jumped to the ground and set her down on her feet. Glancing over the girl, this time taking a good look, Krayl was relieved to see there weren't any adverse effects of using his aura to heal her. _Hmm, I think it would be best to let her bathe, if my inner self is displeased with the dried blood covering her I can bet Neuro will definitely be agitated and that's putting it lightly. _

Yako sighed in relief; it was nice to be on the ground again. She noticed it was darker on the forest floor compared to the tree tops, the moonlight didn't reach this far down she guessed. Without a light source she found that she could hardly see anything, and that made her slightly nervous to be this blind in an unfamiliar place. Glancing where Krayl was, she noticed she could still see his eyes and that brought her some sense of comfort.

When it became apparent that he was observing her, she felt slightly self-conscious. Yako shifted her feet, "What's going to happen next? What are you going to do with me?"

Krayl blinked, _oops, it seems like I've made her nervous again, _"Well, that's a rather complex question."

Yako stared at Krayl skeptically, _I didn't think they were such a difficult questions. _

Seeing her expression, Krayl continue to elaborate, "Many things are going to take place shortly and I'm not going to do anything to you, so don't worry about that, but before I tell what the likely scenario is going to be, would you like it if I took you to a place where you could wash that blood off you first?"

Yako was surprise at the kind offer and eagerly nodded, "That would be nice."

A small kind smile appeared on Krayl's face, too small for Yako to notice in the darkness, "Alright then. Don't be alarmed when I touch you, I'm going to need to carry you to our destination. We are going to have to move fast, I'm running out of time as we speak."

Yako wondered what he meant by running out of time and made no fuss when she was picked up bridal style.

Krayl was pleased that she was being compliant with him, it made things easier. Running through the forest, he emerged into a clearing that contained a clear lake. Observing the water, he was relieved to see its usual inhabitant wasn't home right now, _Good thing too, I don't think she would have been comfortable knowing there would be a demon in the water_.

Walking towards its shore, he place Yako down, "I don't know if you can see the lake that's to your left, it is rather dark, but you can wash up here, I'll move away so you can have your privacy and I'll see if I can get you some clean clothes." Scanning the surroundings for any demons, he walked off leaving Yako alone.

Yako glanced in the direction Krayl mentioned, but for the life of her couldn't see anything and just assumed was a lake over there like Krayl said._ I almost wished he stayed, being alone is scary now._ Inching her way over, Yako found the water and to her surprise it was warm. _This doesn't seem like it's going to be so bad, _Yako smiled eagerly and stripped quickly, she was so glad she would be able to wash all the dried blood off her.

Not far off, Krayl could hear the splash Yako made when she apparently jumped into the water. Shaking his head in amusement, he began to ponder how he would get her new clothes; _I suppose I could conjure something up._ Picturing a female outfit like the numerous ones he saw on Earth, he created a simple skirt and blouse. Krayl eyed the clothes, _well, these will have to do, _folding them up, he placed them over his arm. _Time I should get back, hopefully she is clean enough. I need to tell her what's going to happen._

Elsewhere...

Neuro flew through the air, keeping an eye on the navigator he was holding and watched the blinking dot as it moved, it finally seemed to stay in one place and he figured that's where he would find Yako. He could no longer feel any emotions of hers and that made him feel slightly worried.

Lioth found out that he didn't really care for flying, especially when the only thing keeping him from the unforgiving ground was a clawed grip on the scruff of his neck. Eyeing Neuro spitefully, he couldn't wait to be on the ground again.

Neuro smirked and judged he would be on the cat's position very soon.

Back with Yako and Krayl....

(A.N.A few moments ago, while we were checking in with Neuro, this was happening....After giving her the clothes and allowing her time to dress, Krayl began telling her his story, {I might write about Krayl's and Lioth's past in another story sometime later, if anyone is interested about Neuro's past as the High councilor of hell}. We now continue this chapter when he just finished his story..... Krayl told Yako how this whole incident came about and why Lioth was after Neuro. Hell's Suns were now rising....)

Yako stared at Krayl in shock, "I don't know what to say....Neuro, he...I didn't know he was such an important demon figure here in hell."

Krayl nodded solemnly, but didn't say anything because he had the feeling Yako wasn't quite done talking yet.

"What I don't understand is...why would Lioth use me to get to Neuro?"

Krayl grimaced and then sighed; _I guess I will have to explain the mark on her neck; this is going to be fun._ "Yako, before for I answer that, could you answer a question of mine first?"

Hesitantly, she nodded, her eyes never leaving Krayl's, slightly worried by his obvious reluctance to answer her question.

"Do you remember the day when I brought you to my apartment," seeing her blank look, Krayl sighed," It was when you thought I was still human, you followed me into that ramen shop, I went over to your table and we talked...," his voice drifted off, waiting to see if she remembered.

Seeing that she did remembered that incident, Krayl continue talking," Then I said something that caused you recall something that depressed you and I brought you to the apartment to see what was wrong, I'm sorry to say my intention wasn't pure, but anyways...What I want to ask you is, why did Neuro's behavior bother you so much at that time?"

Yako moved her eyes away from Krayl's suddenly piercing gaze. Staring into the shadows surrounding her, she began to think, _Neuro was behaving so strangely... I grew used to working with him these past two years and it bothered me when I realized he didn't need me anymore.. I felt sad at that thought because..._Her eyes widened and she found herself shifting in discomfort, _wait a minute, why was I sad? I should have been thrilled at the thought of him getting rid of me because it would mean I would be free from his frequent torture and high demands. I...why? _

Yako began recalling her death flashes, all she saw was Neuro; to her it looked like he became the central focus of her life, _he was the one who helped me find my father's murderer and I was finally able to accept his death because of that... Neuro barges into my life and turns it upside down.... I don't think I would be the person I am today if it weren't for him...I'm grateful and.._. She started to laugh hysterically, _I...I fell for that sadistic demon, didn't I? _Tears pooled at the corners of her eyes, _I love that damn bastard...that's why...that's why I was so upset._ "Yako, please look at me," Krayl's soft voice drew her attention back to him, understanding golden eyes stared into her tearful brown ones.

Krayl found himself wanting to comfort the girl when he saw her tearful expression. _Shit...this isn't good; I can't get anymore attached to her._ The emotions he was feeling through his mark made him want to kill something, his inner self wanted to ease her pain, but he knew that job wasn't his to claim.

"I'll answer your question now, about why Lioth used you, but first let me apologize for marking your person, it was inappropriate for me to do so when you already had a mark, but it was the only way I could save your life."

He watched the girl sniff and dry her eyes, "M-Mark?" Krayl raised his eyes skyward, "Yes, demons are rather ...territorial, you see. A mark is a demon's way to show others that they have a claim over the one they marked and that they are under their protection. There are many kinds of marks a demon can place on another and what the mark means depends on what type it is," Krayl brought his gaze back to Yako's, thankfully it was no longer teary, "I've placed a mark on your neck, but the one I have placed..."

An enraged growl caused Krayl leap up in alarm and quickly grab the girl, his instincts were screaming at him to protect her. Yako clung to Krayl in fear, _what was that?_ Feeling her fear, Krayl let out a protective hiss, frantically scanning his surroundings to find the source of the powerful angry aura. _I can't feel it any longer, its being masked...I have a feeling that was Neuro. Shit...he got here sooner than I expected. He probably overheard me talking just now...Perfecting timing, I just said I've place a mark on her, I'm as good as dead now...this is not good, he is not going to behave rationally_.

A yelp drew his attention towards the sky and was quite startled to find something black and furry flying at him. Raising his arm, he quickly caught the thing before it smacked him in the face. He was quite surprised to see it was a quivering hell-hound puppy? Golden eyes stared into familiar red ones, Krayl began to snicker, "L-Lioth, t-that you?"

Lioth just glared in response.

Yako stared at the puppy in Krayl's hand with poorly concealed amusement, _Serves him right for causing this much trouble, from Krayl's reaction I can safely assume he wasn't this small originally._

Lioth resentfully stared at Krayl and the girl who were laughing at his expense, "This is not funny, Krayl. Now put me down on the ground."

Krayl amusement quickly faded as the severity of the situation came back to him, placing Lioth onto the ground; Krayl sadly watched the once fearless hell-hound huddle into a tight ball near his foot, obviously wanting to be as close to the ground as possible, Krayl asked, "Neuro brought you here, right?"

Lioth snorted, "How the hell else would I have got here so fast? Yes, he brought me after doing... this to me. Whatever you did earlier to the girl, had him chasing you like a crazy demon," he glanced at the girl, easily spotting the new mark on her neck, "Though, I have to say, you were insane to mark her, why on earth did you?"

Krayl glared at the pup, "Your idiotic actions resulted in me marking her, you never use a tool on a human and with the state she was in when you sent her to me, she would have died if I didn't do something quick."

Lioth scoffed, "Well, excuse me for not caring."

Krayl growled, "Enough of this, where's Neuro?"

Yako had remained silent during their conversation trying to look for Neuro, but she had no such luck. _Krayl was explaining what a mark was, but he was interrupted before he could explain the meaning behind his, Demons are fascinating, I've learned more about demons from Krayl than I ever did from Neuro ...so does that mean earlier when Neuro bit me, it was to leave a mark? Why? Marks have different meanings, so what does Neuro's mark mean then? _An eerie silence put a stop to her inner musings. Yako could feel tension in the air; it was the calm before the storm.

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AN: Thank you and love the reviews, the next chapter is the final climax and the end of the story, hoped that you have enjoyed my story this far.


	24. Chapter 24

AN: Do not own, just my own characters. It's the last chapter, Hope you enjoy it!

_italics- are inner thoughts._

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Neuro's POV

Eyes flashed between green and black as he stared at the cat demon, the cat's words were ringing in his ears, Neuro was absolutely livid. _How dare he place a mark on something that's mine! _He kept his aura masked so he could observe the ones in the clearing; no matter how much he wanted to charge in there and kill the demon for doing something to his property, Neuro wasn't so far gone in his rage to attack when Yako was still in the cat's paws.

Landing on a branch, Neuro remained hidden in the trees, trying to put a leash on his anger before he did anything rash. Looking over his slave, completely ignoring the talking demons, he was slightly relieved to see Yako looking much better than when he last saw her, though the reason why she was healthy got rid any more _kind _thoughts on that matter. _Hmm, it looks like the slave is looking for me; _a pleased smirk crossed his lips as his eyes finally settled on the color green,_ looks like I don't have to reeducate her, she knows exactly who she belongs to, such a well-trained slave, I should reward her later. _

"Enough of this, where's Neuro?"

Neuro's smirk transformed into something deadly, all his sharp teeth were now showing, _oh, is it time to play already? Can't keep them waiting can I? _Neuro stepped out from behind the trunk he was hiding behind and prepared to leap...

Yako's POV

Yako could feel how tense Krayl was and it made her slightly nervous, _won't this all be over if he just hands me over to Neuro? Speaking of Neuro...where on earth is he? _

Yako scanned her surroundings again, trying to see if she could spot Neuro, but her efforts were wasted, she couldn't see him anywhere. Glancing at Krayl, she could see that he was doing the same thing as her, his golden eyes quickly moved from place to place, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. She figured he must have felt her staring at him because he broke the silence by speaking.

"Yako, there are two things I want you to do," he lowered her to the ground so that she was now standing on her own two feet, keeping his gaze locked on Neuro, _it looks like he has finally stopped hiding, he is still masking his aura though if I didn't see that movement we would have been ambushed_, the grin he saw on his face made him aware that things were going to get ugly fast, "First thing...see that tree over there?"

Yako looked in the direction he pointed, finding the tree he was speaking of, "Yeah, I see it."

"When I count to three, I want you to take Lioth," Krayl quickly scooped the dog up and shoved him into Yako's arms ignoring his protesting 'Hey!', "and run over to that tree."

Yako nervously eyed the unhappy growling demon dog in her arms, "Okay, what's the other thing you want me to do?"

Krayl saw Neuro was about to jump down from the tree and his words rushed out of his mouth, "Forget about the second thing for right now and me counting to three, I want you to run NOW."

Yako ran to the tree, the distress in Krayl's voice causing her to move without question. A snarl caused her to glance over her shoulder as she continued to run; she noticed Krayl had moved into a protective stance between her and ..._Neuro?! _

Yako skidded to a stop and turned around fully just in time to see Neuro lunge at Krayl, his claws outstretched. _What is Neuro doing?! Why is he attacking Krayl? He is the one who saved me._Yako was relieved when Krayl dodged Neuro's attack, but her relief was quickly over when she saw Neuro attack him again, this time more furiously.

Lioth irritably glanced up at the frozen girl who was holding him like one of those stuffed toys on Earth, he was not happy that she stopped running halfway to the tree, _stupid girl, _"Hey..." he noticed the girl didn't hear him, annoyed he repeated himself, "HEY!"

The girl showed no sign of hearing him that time either, her gaze was still fixated on the one-siding battle taking place in front of them, Lioth noticed Krayl hadn't been hit by any of Neuro's attacks, but he knew Krayl could only keep dodging for so long.

A loud growl from Neuro, drew Lioth's attention to him and he was mildly alarmed to see Neuro's eyes were steadily becoming darker, _Shit, that isn't good...he is losing it...what's making him this angry?_

Lioth's nose twitched when he became aware of the scent the girl was letting off, she was afraid and Lioth had a terrible suspicion she wasn't afraid for herself but for Krayl. _Not good...he's already pissed off about someone marking his potential mate and now that his mate is showing concern for someone else...she is going to get us all killed._

Lioth knew that what he was about to do was going to get him in trouble, but he had to get the girl's attention now. Lioth bit the girl's arm hard.

Yako stifled a scream and glanced down at the demon biting her arm, she completely forgot she was holding him._ Ow..Ow..Ow...it hurts._

Two sets of eyes turned to the girl when they felt a sharp pain that wasn't their own, their battle paused momentarily.

Krayl's eyes flashed red and an angry hiss escaped his lips, _LIOTH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!_

Neuro snarled at the dog biting Yako and started to head towards them.

Krayl spotted Neuro's movement out of the corner of his eye; he was heading towards the girl. Krayl felt his body shift to his natural form and tackled Neuro, he was still too dangerous to allow him near Yako. He would deal with Lioth later.

Neuro growled viciously at the cat pinning him to the floor. _How dare you! How dare you cause my slave to feel concern about you, SHE IS MINE. EVERYTHING OF HERS BELONGS TO ME, I WILL NOT SHARE. _Neuro let out a furious roar and with a blast of power, he caused Krayl to shoot off him, making him land harshly a few feet away. Standing up, he followed that attack with another, concentrating his aura to a central point; he created a deadly ball of demonic energy to shoot at the dazed feline.

Sensing that the girl's attention was completely on him, Lioth let go of the girl's arm, blissfully ignoring her pained whimpers, "Girl, get to the tree."

Yako grimly stared at the wound on her arm and quickly began heading for the tree again, not wanting the demon to hurt her again, "Why...Why did you bite me?"

Lioth growled and was pleased to notice she was fearful of him again, "You were about to get us killed that's why."

Yako blinked confused, _killed? _Upon reaching the tree, she quickly placed Lioth down, glad not to be holding him anymore. "What do you mean?"

Lioth shook his body not bothering to answer the girl, getting rid of feeling of being held like a toy, and sat on his haunches, watching Neuro focus his attention on Krayl again, _it looks like Krayl will be in trouble if he doesn't dodge that attack. _

Yako followed the dog's gaze and let out a gasp, _what is that, _she watched what appeared to be a dark swirling mass get bigger by the second. Finding Krayl with her eyes, she was alarmed to see he wasn't moving away from it; turning her sight to Neuro, she found that she couldn't recognize him, _that's...Neuro isn't it? But what's with the black eyes and that...malicious smile_.

This wasn't the one she cared for, where was her green-eyed, arrogant, rude, sometimes abusive demon-boss? _This demon isn't him; he is not this bloodthirsty and merciless._She mumbled quietly to herself, "This isn't Neuro."

Lioth's ears twitched as he caught what the girl said and let out a rude snort, "Girl, don't bother lying to yourself; this demon _IS _Neuro, and he was always this...,"Lioth gave Yako an evil doggie grin, "cruel malicious demon."

Yako shook her head, not wanting to believe Lioth's words, but when Neuro starting laughing sadistically, she could only stare in mute horror. Neuro just released that dark swirling mass towards Krayl.

Krayl shook his head, trying to get his vision in focus, _Shit...not good, _he could feel his fur standing on end as Neuro built up his attack with more and more power. Shifting back to human form, his vision came back into focus just in time to see Neuro's attack come shooting towards him.

Grimacing, Krayl knew there was no way he could dodge that. Figuring he was about to die, Krayl relaxed his mind and body, ready to die in payment for this revenge plot gone horribly wrong. He suddenly felt overflowing waves of fear and concern coming from Yako through his mark and he guessed this was why Neuro began attacking him more viciously.

_It seems like I can't die quite yet, _he allowed his inner self to break free, knowing that if Neuro killed him, Yako would fear Neuro and Krayl couldn't allow that to happen, his conscious wouldn't let him. His eyes turned red and with a blur of speed, moved away enough from the energy ball so it only brushed by his side rather than hitting him head on.

Excruciating pain wracked his body and it took all he had to remain standing. Coughing out blood from his lungs, Krayl's eyes turned back to gold, _I need to tell Yako...I need her to accept Neuro's mark. Neuro is too lost in his rage, there is no sign of awareness to his surroundings anymore ..._Krayl stared into Neuro's pitiless black eyes; all he could see was the desire to kill.

_I need to him to stay still..._Krayl barely dodged Neuro's claws, _when did he move? _Krayl knew he couldn't dodge a second time, so Neuro's follow up attack made a large gash in his arm.

_Shit. _Leaping away from Neuro, Krayl tried to put space between, close combat was too dangerous right now when he was weak.

To his relief, Neuro didn't immediately chase after him, but when he saw why, Krayl couldn't help but feel fear for the first time; Neuro's attention was now on Yako. Krayl leaned on a nearby tree, his strength was rapidly leaving him; that mass of energy did more damage than he thought. _Why is she walking over here?! Doesn't she realize she could be killed_? Helplessly, he watched her approach Neuro.

Neuro's POV

_KILL....KILL....KILL; _Neuro was no better than an animal at the moment and the simple thought of killing the demon repeated in his mind like a chant. He could no longer feel any emotions besides rage and sometimes annoyance, and not being able to kill the injured demon in front of him, only fueled the flames of his rage.

As to why he was furious, he no longer could recall the reason but he knew deep down that this cat demon had to be killed. Wounding the cat for the second time brought him sadistic pleasure and as he prepared to chase after the fleeing cat, movement to his right caught his attention.

A female was slowly approaching him, a human girl. As soon as he spotted her, he found himself rooted in place; his body wouldn't obey his command to move. Growling, he glared the girl, figuring she did something to him. The girl stopped at his growl, heeding his warning to not come any closer, and stared into his eyes. He had a feeling she was trying to communicate something to him. Neuro found that he didn't like her staring at him like that; it irritated him for some reason, so he let his displeasure be known to the girl in another growl, this time more menacing.

A tiny bit ago....

Yako could no longer watch this...she didn't want to watch Krayl be killed by Neuro. Numbly, she slowly began walking towards the battle field.

Lioth watched the girl move from her spot towards the enraged demon and made an idle comment, "You are insane, you know that girl?"

She paused briefly and replied, "Maybe I am."

When she continued walking, Lioth tilted his head, showing his curiosity at the girl's actions, _Humans, who knows what they are thinking. _Lioth stood up and began heading towards Krayl, he was feeling slightly concerned about his foster parent and wanted to see if he could provide some help.

Back on time...

Yako could feel tears trickle down her cheeks, Neuro didn't recognize her. He was growling at her.

_Neuro, where are you? This demon in front of me is not you. Please, please come back to me. _

Yako wiped her eyes and stared determinedly into Neuro's black eyes, _if you won't come back to me, I'll come get you;_she bravely took another step towards Neuro, ignoring the growl Neuro let out when she moved closer, _we can go home. We can go back to our office. _

Neuro felt alarm when the girl began ignoring his growls and steadily began moving closer. He could feel his rage slowly disappearing, leaving unknown feelings in its place, it unnerved him and he still couldn't move to his irritation.

_I'll find you lots of puzzles to eat. I'll obey your every command....well only the reasonable ones. _

The girl was only a foot away from him now. Growling desperately at the girl, he wanted to stop her to moving any closer, one of those unnamed feelings was overwhelming him.

Now that she was close enough, Yako could see Neuro's eyes weren't black like she thought but rather a dark shade of green. Yako smiled slightly when she noticed there appeared to be an internal struggle going on behind those dark eyes; he was trying to come back, _Neuro...Thank you for coming. Thank you for everything so let me help you for once, _she closed the remaining distance between them, wrapping her arms around him tightly in a hug, she hoped her lovable sadistic boss would come back to her.

Neuro tensed and closed his eyes when the girl wrapped her arms around him; his remaining rage was erased by a powerful emotion,_ what's ...this?_

Krayl's POV

Krayl sighed tiredly in relief and allowed his body to sink to the floor, keeping his back against the tree. _It looks like I don't I have to tell her anything...she's accepted it, Neuro's mark. _

He felt his connection to Yako fade to a point where it no longer it would cause any trouble, _She will always have my protection... thank god it will no longer visible to others besides myself. _Krayl watched Lioth approach him and an amused smirk crossed his lips, _I think it's going to be awhile till I don't find Lioth's new appearance funny._

Ignoring Lioth's annoyed glare, Krayl gestured to him to come closer, and when he was close enough scooped him up and placed him on his lap. "Lioth, everything is done. I think you have learned your last lesson well enough, revenge is not worth it."

Lioth huffed before reluctantly nodding in agreement.

Krayl glanced towards Yako and Neuro for the last time. Summoning the remains of his power he transported himself and Lioth away from the clearing.

Neuro's eyes snapped open as felt the burst of power nearby, just in time to see the cat and the hound vanish.

Neuro sighed and glanced down at the human girl hugging him, _Stupid slave, I could have hurt you._

He was so relieved that he didn't hurt her; he moved his arms to loosely hug her back and figured it would be too much trouble to track the cat again. The cat's mark was gone for the most part and all that was left was the protection, having someone else protect her when he couldn't wasn't so bad after all.

Yako closed her eyes and smiled when she felt Neuro hugging her back; it was unusual of him to be this gentle. Familiar hypnotizing green eyes stared back at her when finally opened her eyes and the once gentle hug turned crushing.

Yako let out a laugh and ignored the slight pain Neuro was giving her; _it wouldn't be him if he wasn't abusive._

An arrogant smirked twisted his lips when he heard Yako laugh, "Slave, let's go home."

Yako push against his chest, "Neuro, you are crushing me."

Neuro raised an eyebrow, "So? You owe me for getting your useless hide out of trouble and crushing you is such a good way to punish you."

Yako grinned, "Alright, alright I'll find you a big puzzle when we get back."

Neuro pleased with her response let her go, "Good, I've worked up an appetite."

Yako grabbed Neuro's hand before he could move away from her; she was slightly pleased to see her action surprise him. "Thank you for not abandoning me," and before she lost her nerve, Yako stood on her tiptoes and quickly placed a gentle kiss on his cheek.

Neuro froze, his green eyes slightly widening.

Blushing, Yako released his hand and ran a few feet away from him, turning around to face him after putting a few feet between them, "So how do we get back to Earth?"

Neuro shook his head, amused by his slave's actions. Walking in the opposite direction Yako went, all he said was 'come', not worrying that she wouldn't follow.

Obediently Yako obeyed his command; she knew she would follow him anywhere.

Neuro was very content to listen to Yako's footsteps following him as he led them out of Hell. _Yako, it's you who can't leave and if you do I'll chase you to Hell and back again._

* * *

AN: It's finally over, I can't believe it. I have a few more ideas dealing with this plot so there may be a sequel or some companion one-shots ahead. Thank you and love the reviews, hope you have enjoyed this story, its been fun. I'll be working on "I'm not crazy" after a short break, so please look forward to it.


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